Heralded Charter on the Way ; Pueblo School Opening 2 Locations in Springs
By BRIAN NEWSOME THE GAZETTE
A Pueblo charter school that’s been widely recognized for helping poor and minority children succeed is expanding to Colorado Springs.
A school official said it hopes to enroll as many as 1,700 students here by spring 2008.
The Cesar Chavez Academy earned approval from the Colorado Charter School Institute on Tuesday to open two K-8 schools here. Although the schools will be located within Colorado Springs School District 11, their funding will come directly from the state.
The academy is negotiating to buy a building that formerly housed a Kmart store in the southern part of the city, said Lawrence Hernandez, chief executive officer of the schools. The school is deciding among three locations for its second campus, which will be in the central or northern part of the district.
Hernandez left his job as a professor in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education to start Cesar Chavez six years ago in Pueblo, where he grew up. Today, the school is recognized by the state as a James Irwin School of Excellence, meaning it’s in the top 8 percent statewide based on standardized test scores.
It’s the only low-income school in Colorado to have ever scored excellent on the School Accountability Report, Hernandez said.
Nearly two-thirds of the school’s 1,150 students are poor. That number was once even higher, but affluent families have been drawn to the school from watching its test results, Hernandez said. About 80 percent of students are minorities, he said.
About 3,000 children are on a waiting list to enroll. The school is one of six nationally that are being profiled by the U.S. Department of Education as one of the country’s “most promising,” Hernandez said.
The school uses Core Knowledge curriculum and provides daily one- on-one tutoring for every student, he said.
Hernandez said some Colorado Springs parents have already inquired about enrollment. The academy plans to open a Colorado Springs office here in January.
The Colorado Springs schools will enroll from 300 to 400 apiece initially, but by March 2008 they could be at full enrollment, 1,700, he thinks.
The Pueblo school plans to expand from 1,150 to 1,800 students next year.
The charter school originally applied to D-11 and was interested in coming into existing schools with low scores and severely declining enrollment.
It withdrew the application amid the political turmoil of the recall election. Although the school system had hoped to work closely with D-11, Hernandez said he was concerned that board politics could interfere.
Eric Christen, an outspoken advocate of the academy, and Sandy Shakes were ousted in a recall election earlier this month. Voters elected Jan Tanner and Charlie Bobbitt, who are scheduled to be sworn in Friday morning.
“My goal has always been to collaborate with D-11,” Hernandez said, “and I did not want to get into a situation that would create a hostile environment for our charter school.”
D-11 Board President John Gudvangen said it was probably better for the state to hold the schools’ charters than the district because it won’t tap district resources, but he said the district and the academy are not adversaries.
“If they can provide good things for kids, great,” Gudvangen said. “I think that our schools can stand up against the best. There’s certainly nothing wrong with families having choices.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0198 or bnewsome@gazette.com
(c) 2006 Gazette, The; Colorado Springs, Colo.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.