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Richmond Considers Its First Charter School / Review Team Will Study a Plan From a School With Ties to a Norfolk Ministry

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 12:01 CST

By LINDSAY KASTNER

A Norfolk private school with its roots in a Christian ministry could be replicated in Richmond as the city's first charter school.

A review team will meet today to consider an application for the charter, which was submitted to the Richmond School Board last month.

Charter schools are independent public schools. They operate under a charter with the local school board and have some freedom in policy and curriculum decisions.

The application for Leading Edge Academy states that the school will be nonsectarian, as required by Virginia law.

But Leading Edge would be modeled after the Judeo-Christian Park Place School.

Will this present any issues for Leading Edge as it seeks to replicate the Park Place teaching methods in a Richmond charter school?

"The only answer to that is yes," School Board Chairman David L. Ballard said. "Whether they are insurmountable issues, I don't know yet."

Ballard said he expects the public to have questions about Park Place's Christian ties. The Park Place educational program, which would be a foundation of the Leading Edge Academy curriculum, is used by other, mostly Christian, schools around the United States and in other countries.

Michele Shultz is development director at Park Place and a member of the Leading Edge management committee. She said she hopes the school's Christian roots won't affect Leading Edge's application.

"It did start out that way, yes," Shultz said of Park Place, "That's not a part of the charter school."

Shultz said Leading Edge will be devoid of prayer or Bible teachings.

Late last summer, Leading Edge's management committee secured a federal grant to start a charter in Richmond, about five months after U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Mayor L. Douglas Wilder met in Richmond to discuss bringing charters to the city. Both are supporters of the charter movement.

Leading Edge was one of three schools to receive the federal funding. Another was Norfolk's Park Place, where Shultz said she expects to apply for charter status later this year.

Richmond was chosen as the site for Leading Edge based on factors such as high dropout rates and Park Place's desire to work in inner cities, Shultz said.

"And the mayor is interested in having us come there," she said.

* * *

The goal of the proposed school is to take struggling third- graders for three years and improve their basic reading, writing and math skills, returning them to middle school as sixth-graders who perform at or above grade level.

When Wilder and Spellings met in the spring, Wilder said he favored a vocational charter for middle or high school students. He could not be reached for comment.

The Richmond charter school would use an unconventional "educational therapy" to exercise students' brains, teaching the left and right sides of the brain to work together. The school would target students who are falling behind, aiming for those who failed third grade or have been held back before, who read or write below grade level, or who are otherwise at-risk academically but not receiving special-education services.

Shultz says the program serves an unfilled need and that the teaching methods Leading Edge would use have worked for Park Place.

But Richmond School Board member Carol A.O. Wolf said in an e- mail that she does not support bringing Leading Edge to Richmond. Instead, she suggested two regional charters, one for students with autism and one specializing in vocational and technical education, along the lines of the governor's schools.

She also said that ". . . by excluding children who receive special-education services, they are stacking the deck" for more positive achievement results. "I would rather see our school system incorporate many of their teaching techniques."

Ballard, who visited Park Place in the fall, said he was intrigued by the school's educational therapy but unconvinced that Park Place, open only since 2001, has a proven record.

Ballard said he has not made up his mind about the school.

"I don't have an opinion either way on Leading Edge at this time," Ballard said. "I want to see what the evaluation team brings forward."

Park Place's precursor was a 12-student pilot program that ran from 1996 to 1999. Three of those students are now in college, and the others are in high school and on track to graduate.

* * *

Though there are thousands of charters in the United States, research on how they affect student achievement has produced mixed results. And in Virginia, where the charter movement has been slow to take hold, the handful of charter schools that have been formed have shown varied test scores, student attendance and dropout rates.

The American Federation of Teachers once lauded charters as educational laboratories. But federation spokesman Jaime Zapata said the concerns about accountability have caused the foundation to modify its position.

If approved, Leading Edge plans to open in the Patrick Henry Elementary School building on Semmes Avenue. Patrick Henry is scheduled to close at the end of this school year.

Leading Edge would serve a maximum of 180 children, but only 60 in its first year. It would start with one third-grade class of 60 students and introduce another third-grade class each year as the original students advance.

The Richmond Waldorf School, a private school now housed in a church, is considering sharing the Patrick Henry building with Leading Edge.

"That's still on," Shultz said.

Representatives from the Waldorf School visited Park Place School last year to see whether the two might be a good fit.

But before anyone begins moving into Patrick Henry, the Richmond School Board must decide whether Leading Edge is a good fit. The board's charter school review team will present its findings to the board soon.

The team is made up of school district administrators, an elementary school principal and a local business person. The School Board clerk is an ex-officio member, and a second business person is listed as a pending member.

The team's chairman, Tom Sheeran, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said he expects the team to meet weekly for about a month to pore over the Leading Edge application before bringing a recommendation to the board.

"From what I've seen of the application, it's pretty thorough," he said.

In hundreds of pages, the application details everything from curriculum to student-evaluation procedures to job descriptions.

Shultz said she's looking for teachers and hopes to hold community meetings about the school soon.

What is a charter school?

Charter schools are independent public schools that operate under a charter with a local school board. They are run by their own board and have flexibility in policy and curriculum decisions.

In Virginia, charter schools must be nonreligious and non-home- based, though charter schools for at-risk students can be residential. Charter schools are eligible for public funds. They may not charge tuition. Students take Standards of Learning tests.

There are three charter schools in the state. They are:

-- Murray High School in Albemarle County.

-- Hampton Harbor Academy in Hampton.

-- York River Academy in York County.

Murray and Hampton Harbor serve students not reaching full potential in a traditional school setting. York River focuses on information-technology career preparation.

The Richmond School Board rejected a charter school application in 2003.

Contact staff writer Lindsay Kastner at lkastner@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6058.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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