Charter school coming to Lawrence School District

An application for a charter school in the Lawrence School District, submitted by a group that includes Five Towns area residents, is being reviewed by the New York State Education Department Charter School Office.
Should the application be approved, the group is looking to launch the New American Leadership Academy Charter School next September. It would begin operating next school year with 120 students, split evenly between one kindergarten and one first-grade class. The plan calls for adding a grade a year, including having a fifth grade by 2019-20.
A charter school is defined by the State Education Department as a public school that is financed by state and federal money, and is independent of local school boards. According to the department, charter schools usually focus on innovative curriculums and non-traditional educational organization. Students are typically accepted through an application process. The New American Leadership Academy plans to focus on English language learners and students of all religions who have disabilities. Based on a state formula, the school would be eligible for just under $22,000 per pupil in state aid, 75 percent of what the Lawrence School District receives. There would be no charge for tuition.
“It is to give parents another school option,” said Yehudi Meschaninov, director of operations for the Brooklyn-based New American Initiative, a nonprofit group that provides support and training to charter schools. Meschaninov is overseeing pre-opening planning and operations for the proposed charter school. “Our program is based on strong student-centered teacher development, a quality career ladder and a cohort with long-term relationships with teachers who get to know their needs as learners,” he said.
The school would be modeled on what the New American Leadership Academy founders called “best practices from across the globe,” and a master teacher would oversee a team of four teachers in the classroom. The school day would be 20 percent longer than the typical public school average of seven hours, and include a 90-minute planning meeting for teachers. The school calendar would include five weeks of staff development during the summer.

“We work as a team for the betterment of the student,” said Burton Sacks, an Atlantic Beach resident who is expected to serve on the school’s board of trustees, along with Dr. Evelyn Castro, an associate dean of LIU’s School of Education; Margaret Foley; Evelyn Gargano and Ellen Robbins. Foley, an experienced educator, is president of the Atlantic Beach Estates Civic Association, and Gargano is a co-vice president of the group. Robbins, an Atlantic Beach resident, is an educator with experience in creating elementary school curriculums. Sacks is the deputy chief operating officer for management services at the City University of New York, a former chief executive of the New York City Board of Education and a former senior adviser to the United Federation of Teachers, and serves on the board of two charter schools.
The location of the school has yet to be determined, Sacks said.
The New American Charter School in Brooklyn, one of three charter schools in New York City that the New American Initiative supports, had only two of 22 students pass the state math and reading exams in 2013. Meschaninov pointed to substantial improvement during the 2013-14 school year for all three schools, which are in high-poverty areas. In September, 39 percent of kindergarten students read at grade level, but by June it was 69 percent, he said. During the same school year, a third of the 74 percent of first-graders who were two years behind grade level improved five or more reading levels. “… [W]e have a system that is continually improving,” Meschaninov said.
Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall said the district is performing its required due diligence during the application process. “The role the district has is to choose to sign a memorandum of agreement with the charter school,” Schall said. “We have not made that decision.” The school district will host a public hearing on the charter school proposal sometime in November.
Lori Skonberg, president of the Lawrence Teachers Association, which represents the district’s teachers, social workers and psychologists, said she appreciated that the New American Leadership Academy contacted the LTA for input, but the union opposes idea. “The LTA is not in favor of the formation of a charter school in Lawrence,” Skonberg said, “because such a school will require resources that would otherwise go to the Lawrence public schools.”
Comments on the proposed school application can be submitted to charterschools@mail.nysed.gov or by mail to NYSED Charter School Office, 89 Washington Ave., EBA 465, Albany, N.Y. 12234.

Have an opinion about a charter school coming to the Five Towns? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.