SOUTHTOWNS
Organizers request state approval of charter school
If approved, a charter school proposed for the Evans-Angola area would be the first in Western New York outside an urban area.
A hearing was held last week on the application that the Keystone Charter School, a local nonprofit corporation, has filed with the state’s Charter School Institute.
No site has been chosen for the school, which would offer kindergarten through eighth grade.
The group’s board of trustees include Jill Barrett, who just completed six years on the Lake Shore School Board; George Drescher, a retired Depew school superintendent and educational consultant; and Amy Littlefield, a teacher at St. Mary of the Lake School.
“We feel there’s no choice out there,” Drescher explained. “The only choice is parochial or private, and in some areas of the Southtowns, economics do not allow people to have a choice.”
In their application, organizers also cited pupil achievement, saying a review of test results from several Southtowns districts had “found them to be unsatisfactory.”
In addition to drawing pupils from the Lake Shore District, where the school would be located, Keystone would seek to enroll youngsters from the Eden, Frontier, Hamburg, North Collins and Silver Creek districts.
All Western New York charter schools are located in Buffalo, Lackawanna, or Niagara Falls, or draw most of their enrollment from those communities, according to the Western New York Charter School Coalition.
Keystone’s plan call for it to open in fall 2009 with 140 pupils in kindergarten through third grade and grow to 320 as it expands through eighth grade by 2014.
Officials said they already have collected parental signatures of support.
But the school needs a state charter to begin operations.
At the public hearing, 53 people signed in, but few parents spoke. Most of those speaking in favor of the plan were associated with the organizing group, while most of those who opposed it were affiliated with Lake Shore schools.
A charter school potentially would take money as well as pupils from Southtowns districts. The schools would lose state aid for each pupil who transfers to a charter school, while the charter school would receive approximately 75 percent of that amount.
Like public schools, charter schools are tuition- free and financed by public funds.
Corrine Cristofaro, the executive director of the Charter Schools Coalition, said a charter school could complement public schools.
“We are not the enemy; we’re not draining your funds,” said Cristofaro, who taught at Lake Shore for 14 years before taking the coalition job two years ago. “We’re using the state’s funding mechanism.”
Mike Frew, president of the Lake Shore Central Teachers Association, said his group is opposed to Keystone’s application.
“As president of the Teachers Association, I have to do what I can to protect jobs,” he said. “But more important are the programs that we offer to all of our students. If we are faced with financial draws coming out of our district funding, some of the extra programs we have at Lake Shore could go away.”
The Charter School Institute is expected to interview the Keystone board of trustees this week.
A final decision is not expected until early next year.
