ALABAMA'S FIRST CHARTER SCHOOL Application for Charter School
Dr. Soner Tarim from Harmony Science Academy in Texas is on the board
https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/02/montgomery_countys_first_publi.html
The Alabama Public Charter School Commission Monday gave approval for LEAD Academy to become Montgomery County's first public charter school, in a 5-1 vote, with Commission Chairman Mac Buttram abstaining. Buttram said he abstained because he has previously worked with members of LEAD Academy's board. LEAD Academy plans to open in August for the 2018-2019 school year with 360 students in Kindergarten through 5th grade, expanding by one or more grades each year until it serves a total of 1,250 students in all grades by the 2024-2025 school year. Public charter schools are publicly funded but have more autonomy than traditional public schools in finance, personnel, scheduling, curriculum, instruction and procurement.
The flexibility is intended to encourage innovative programs that serve some students better than traditional schools. According to a presentation made by the four founding board members to the Commission, the acronym LEAD comes from the vision for the school: "to build leaders by engaging students, focusing on high achievement and developing the whole child to become knowledgeable, productive, well-rounded citizens." Leaders, engaging, achievement and developing being the keywords there. LEAD Academy Board Chair Charlotte Meadows, a former Montgomery Board of Education member, said in a press release, "We are excited to start preparing for the upcoming school year and serving students that are looking for another option in Montgomery."
The board held a public meeting in January in downtown Montgomery, where, at the time, press reports said the school may be located, but Meadows told the Commission those plans are not yet final. This will be the first public charter school to use a Charter Management Organization, or CMO, to perform what Meadows called "central office" duties for the school. Unity School Services, a newly-formed for-profit organization, will serve as the education service provider for LEAD Academy.
The role of the education service provider, according to the presentation, is similar to what central office personnel do in local school districts and includes developing, monitoring, and evaluating curriculum and instruction and conducting professional development and training for teachers and other personnel in the school. Unity School Services' founder Dr. Soner Tarim, who founded the Harmony Public Schools network in 2000, attended the meeting and fielded questions from Commissioners about how the school will operate. Harmony Public Schools network is the largest charter school network in Texas, with 54 schools and 34,000 students, and the second largest in the nation, Tarim said. After the meeting, Buttram, who has served on the Commission since its inception in 2015, said the for-profit nature of Unity School Services doesn't worry him.
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| Soner Tarim receiving an award just weeks before he stepped down as Harmony Superintendent resurfaces in China and Alabama |
"They are a for-profit organization, and they're in it, I'm sure, to turn a profit," Buttram said, "but they have an expertise and a history that can be very beneficial, I believe."
The school will use a "cross-disciplinary blended PBL [project-based learning] curriculum" that will be aligned with Alabama's course of study. The curriculum will be a STREAMS-based curriculum, board member Dr. Lori White told Commissioners. STREAMS is an acronym for science, technology, reading, engineering, arts, math, and social and emotional learning, she said, and the school day will include longer blocks for English Language Arts and math.
Board member William Green said character development through social and emotional learning is central to the school's mission. Character has to be developed "in every class, in every day," Green said. "Throughout all the way from kindergarten through high school."
"If there was a culture change in Montgomery public schools, we wouldn't even be here in the first place," Green said.
Montgomery County's public schools are undergoing state department of education intervention for academic and financial reasons. In January, 14 of Montgomery's schools were declared "failing" under the Alabama Accountability Act, and 17 schools received F's on the state's report card.
On Feb. 9, Alabama interim state superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson, who is overseeing the intervention, unveiled next steps for Montgomery's public schools, including closing four schools, and eliminating 17 central office positions.In December, Richardson declared Montgomery County would begin accepting charter applications as part of the intervention and will accept applications for charter operators through March 16.
LEAD Academy's board members, under the name Infinity Learning Center, applied to the Commission last year, and received conditional approval, but withdrew the application. Because of the work that had been completed on the prior application, the Commission granted permission to open for enrollment in 2018.
The next round of applications to the Commission is due March 16. The Commission will meet next on May 14 to vote on those applications.
Mobile's ACCEL Academy, which serves students in grades 9 through 12 who are at risk of dropping out, opened last August as the first public charter school in Alabama. University Charter School in Sumter County plans to open in Livingston in west Alabama in August of this year.
After the meeting, Buttram said he feels good about LEAD Academy's approval and the Commission's oversight of applications. "I have been an advocate for many years for charter schools," he said, "and to be a part of approving the first ones in the state of Alabama is certainly important to me."
LEAD Academy faces challenges, critics ahead of planned fall opening
https://amp.montgomeryadvertiser.com/amp/395277002?__twitter_impression=true
Charlotte Meadows discusses the LEAD Academy charter school at her home in Montgomery, Ala. on Tuesday March 6, 2018. (Mickey Welsh / Montgomery Advertiser)
MICKEY WELSH / ADVERTISER
Charter school LEAD Academy hopes to have $500,000 in start-up funds prior to a planned fall opening. It has $2,000 in the bank. The school was approved by the Alabama Public Charter School Commission on Feb. 12; that was after the National Association of Charter School Authorizers recommended they be denied. Five months before LEAD Academy hopes to open its doors to its first 360 students, the school has no building, principal or teachers.
For a charter school trying to be one of the first to open in Montgomery, LEAD Academy's first few months of operation have given critics plenty of questions and few answers. If you tell me there is general distrust on social media and Facebook, I believe you," LEAD Academy chairperson Charlotte Meadows said. "What I’m getting in the public is strangers walking up to me and saying, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing.’"
The most recent challenge for LEAD Academy is a lawsuit filed Monday by the Alabama Education Association (AEA) alleging the state charter commission's vote for LEAD's approval was "invalid" or "arbitrary."
Prior to news of the lawsuit being made public, Meadows responded to concerns about charter schools entering Montgomery and outlined the challenges still facing her school in an interview with the Montgomery Advertiser.
The largest obstacle is having doors to open when fall semester begins, a priority that could delay LEAD's opening by a year if not accomplished soon, Meadows said.
We’re not at that point yet," Meadows said. "I feel like I’ve got several strong possibilities for buildings right now, and I think either one of the three I’m looking at could well work. If they don’t, the board will have to decide, ‘OK, we’re going to punt to 2019.'"
A hoped-for $3 million deal to purchase the Small Business Resource Center fell through. Meadows said she has inquired about the possibility of acquiring Dozier Elementary School, one of four schools interim state superintendent Ed Richardson announced would be closed in the fall as a cost-saving measure for Montgomery Public Schools (MPS). A building is also required to complete the school's contract with the state commission, due within 60 days of the Feb. 12 approval date.
If a building is secured, it will be paid for by American Charter Development, a charter school financer that would lease the building to LEAD Academy for the first three years before selling the building to the school outright, Meadows said.
LEAD currently has $2,000 on the books after $500 each from board members Lori White, Ryan Cantrell, William Green and Meadows. LEAD's goal is to collect $500,000 to cover staff salaries and start-up costs for the three months prior to opening, a goal the board has tried to reach through both corporate donations and individual contributions. Meadows said the opening of the school is not contingent upon the wallets of Montgomery citizens.
"I agree it doesn’t look like we have $500,000 in the bank, and we don’t," Meadows said. "We do have a commitment of a loan from a bank so we will have the finances to start if we don’t raise any money. That would not be ideal, but it can be done."
The school will earn money through state and federal education funds like other public schools, and could also see revenue from the Montgomery County education fund, donations and grants.
Meadows said the board members will not profit from the school. The school is projected to make $105,000 its first year, spending $6,900 per student while making an estimated $7,200 per student.
The only person who will profit from school revenue is Soner Tarim, founder of charter school network Harmony Public Schools in Texas. Tarim, through the recently formed charter management organization Unity School Services, is acting as adviser to LEAD Academy and will be in charge of establishing a curriculum alongside the school's yet-to-be-hired principal.
Tarim's 54 Harmony schools in Texas have a 100 percent college acceptance rate at schools while serving more than 33,000 students, 61 percent of whom are economically disadvantaged and 64 percent of whom are the first in their family to attend college, according to the school system's website.
Meadows said Tarim will be in charge of "day-to-day operations" and will bring staff to Montgomery to serve as a central office.
Facing criticism that none of LEAD Academy's board members have taught or started a school before, Meadows called Tarim "the expertise we need."
"Soner is the person with experience we’ll be relying on for all the education expertise. We also have several teachers working with us in an advisory capacity and we’ve got the entire State Department of Education that’s supposed to help get us started," Meadows said. "Then we intend to hire principals and teachers, and they will be the experts in the school curriculum, the teaching. That’s not ever supposed to be the board’s role. We know there’s going to be people that are critical and not trusting. They don’t have to choose a charter school as an option for their child. This is for parents who want something different."
But the hiring of Tarim, who is in talks to make 10 and 13 percent of LEAD Academy's revenue, does not come without controversy.
Harmony schools were subject to investigation beginning in 2011 due to rumors of a connection between the schools and the Turkish Gülen movement, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed for the 2016 Turkish coup.
The Turkish government issued a complaint in May 2016 accusing Harmony of self-dealing and funneling American taxpayer money to Gülen, a Turkish cleric and political opponent of Erdogan, who has reportedly been living in Pennsylvania since 1999. The complaint was dismissed by the Texas Education Agency in Oct. 2016, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Meadows said she questioned Tarim about the alleged ties before hiring him in the fall, saying "he's explained where all of that came from."
"Soner told us last time he was here that he is not even able to go back to Turkey anymore," Meadows said. "The fact the state of Texas has awarded him some of the awards he’s received over the past couple years and the fact we’ve gotten to know him and what he’s been able to accomplish, I’m convinced he’s not part of a Gülen movement. Furthermore the board has complete authority over all contracts and all hires. The CMO (Tarim) can make recommendations, and we expect he will, but it will be the board’s decision."
Meadows said she saw Tarim's commitment when he flew into Atlanta and drove through the Jan. 17 snowstorm to get to Meadows' house for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) phone interview.
NACSA ultimately recommended LEAD Academy be denied, a concern mentioned by critics and the AEA lawsuit.
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