Next Steps in Charter School Conversion
The Montgomery County Board of Education has approved a proposal to convert three Montgomery public schools into charter schools.
The board approved an application from the Montgomery Education Foundation Tuesday night with a 4-1 vote and one member abstaining.
The approval does not mean charter schools will immediately be implemented. MEF must present a contract to the board and complete negotiations within 60 days.
If the contract is approved, MPS would still own the facilities and employ personnel but MEF would oversee everyday operations. Superintendent Dr. Ann Roy Moore says this would include academic operations, managing budgets, transportation and ironing out all legal details.
“In the description of what a group would do, with a charter, they have to talk about what they would do to improve student performance,” Dr. Moore said.
“Once we have the contract in place, then that gives us the go ahead to lock down a very impactful service provider. What that is, is it is a school management organization that has hit home runs in this particular area and other context, very similar to Montgomery,” said Justin Hampton, Director of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives at Montgomery Foundation Education.
Three schools were chosen due to need. Those schools are E.D Nixon Elementary, Davis Elementary and Bellingrath Middle School.
“That need comes out of how has performance been over the course of the last five to seven to ten years. To watch trajectory. Is it upwards or downwards? These schools were selected because of where they ranked in official state rankings,” said Hampton.
“Charters have more flexibility at this time then public schools have. So, if we had some of the same flexibility, we could probably address some things a different way and hopefully over time it would be understood that even though you are not a charter, these things still support our students and help them perform well academically,” Dr. Moore said.
According to Dr. Moore, the proposal is designed for children who live in the zone and there is no opt-out option.
“These schools have a board of oversight that are directly responsible for those schools. Which means the issues, the challenges, the good, the bad, the assets in the community, those things can be leveraged and challenges can be met based upon the population. Based upon the challenges directly with that school,” said Hampton.
Dr. Moore says MEF will have five years to prove the charter schools’ ability to help students improve their academic performance if everything passes.
