http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/feeds/topics/Nashua-Charter-School Daily news from The Telegraph of Nashua en-us dkiesow@nashuatelegraph.com onlineeditor@nh.com http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/958896-196/merrimack-charter-school-expanding-to-nashua-with.html It appears Nashua will get its first charter school this year after all. Weeks after school administration and the Board of Education postponed talks about a district charter school coming to the city, the Academy for Science and Design in Merrimack announced Saturday that its new location would be in Nashua. As of July 1, the Academy for Science and Design will be located at 486 Amherst St., along Route 101A, said Thomas Frischknecht, chairman of the board for the Academy for Science and Design. The announcement follows months of searching, as the school has planned to expand and accommodate more students. “We’re really busting out the seams in our present building,” Frischknecht said. “The plan is really to expand with the growth pattern of the school.” The building is a one-story industrial space with about 70,000 square feet available. It is currently home to defense contractor Cobham Tactical Communications and Surveillance. The charter school, which serves grades 6-12, sits on about 24,000 square feet at 316 Daniel Webster Highway in Merrimack. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:59:31 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/906010-196/application-process-for-charter-schools-in-new.html Looking at the application process for the Academy for Science and Design, Merrimack’s public charter school, one could easily mistake it for the steps one would find for gaining admission to a private school. After attending the mandatory information session, students must get two letters of recommendation from their current school, one letter of recommendation from someone outside the school, fill out a 29-question academic interest survey, take part in an interview with school staff and, finally, take a skills assessment. Director David Chauvette admitted it is intensive and is “almost like a college, private school process,” but he also believes it’s necessary. Not to protect the school, he said, but to protect the parents and the children. “Our process is on the longer side because we try to expose the student and parent to the reality of the school. We have to make sure the students are capable of doing the work,” he said. “We don’t want to put any student on academic probation. Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:59:38 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/792496-227/bill-lifting-charter-school-cap-passes.html CONCORD – Parents could soon have more educational options for their children, as Gov. John Lynch signed into law a bill lifting New Hampshire’s cap on state-approved charter schools. Lynch signed the bill, HB 1495, last week, according to Colin Manning, the governor’s spokesperson. The move allows for the state Board of Education to begin approving proposals for new charter schools, which are publicly funded but do not operate under the same type of local control as traditional public schools. The state currently has 11 charter schools, including the Academy for Science and Design in Merrimack, which first opened its doors in 2007. Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:35:01 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953175-196/nashua-takes-a-step-back-on-district.html NASHUA – The School District is putting the brakes on plans to open a charter school. The initial timeline was to have a charter school proposal before the Board of Education in June, but Superintendent Mark Conrad said last week the district will take the summer to further develop the instructional aspects of the program and seek feedback in the fall. Board of Education members had expressed concerns earlier this year about the specific model of the program. “After conversations with the board and the union, we need to step back and say, ‘What does our vision look like?’ ” Conrad said. This doesn’t scrap the idea of a district-sponsored charter school in the city completely, Conrad said, but it serves as a refocusing effort. A group of teachers and administrators will outline instructional goals, then decide whether the program is best fit for a charter school, Conrad said. Other models, such as a “school within a school” like the former SNTAS program at Nashua High School, also could be considered, he said. The central question that needs to be answered is how the program would improve student learning across the district, Conrad said. “That’s the place to begin,” he said. “Then, we’ll go back to the question ‘Should it be a charter school?’ ” Conrad outlined the change at a board meeting in February, and board members supported the step back. “We were making a decision where something was going to be placed before we really understood what we were talking about doing,” board President Bob Hallowell said. The new plans include a heightened focus on middle school, although the initial proposal was to serve grades 4-8. Those details will be developed further this summer, Conrad said. Nashua is one of the state’s first school districts to pursue the creation of a charter school. The Board of Education signed off on the plan in August, and several members are still in favor of the idea, but questions about cost, governance and resources persisted as the discussion went forward. Hallowell said the board is supportive of taking a second look at the goals of the proposal. “This gives everybody a chance to say, ‘OK, where do we want our focus to be?’ ” he said. If the district were to open a charter school, Nashua would be eligible for up to $500,000 from an $11.6 million federal grant New Hampshire received to help pay for starting new charter schools. Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:35:07 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/947579-227/bills-may-boost-private-schools.html CONCORD – School choice advocates and Republican legislative leaders said Monday that an average $1,500 tax credit would allow more low-income students to attend non-public schools of their choice. Opponents counter the state tax credit for business owners would rob public schools of $15 million and includes no accountability for the quality of programs. House and Senate GOP leaders are putting their weight behind making New Hampshire the ninth state in the country to offer tax credits for businesses supporting scholarships to non-public schools. House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt, R-Salem said the aim is to assist parents whose children are not thriving in their assigned public school. “Good schools should not only be available to the rich; all children should have the opportunity to choose what school to go to,” Bettencourt said at a news conference. “I’m not seeking just an adequate education for our children; we are seeking an excellent education for our children, one that allows our kids to be competitive with the brightest minds in the world.” The average cost of a religious elementary school is $5,228 a year, more than double the average scholarship. It’s a third what it costs for a religious high school, $7,664 on average annually. Republican gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne said he’s learned serving on an education foundation that a small scholarship can act like a “bridge loan” to families struggling to place their children in private schools. “We need to be a state that welcomes different approaches to education,” Lamontagne said. “It’s a baby step, but an important baby step.” Jeff McLynch, head of the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, said the credits would rob cash-strapped public schools of money and have not been shown to improve student performance when implemented elsewhere. Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:54:26 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/947493-196/planners-for-arts-charter-school-in-nashua.html NASHUA – After a year of sharpening the details of their dream, two parents recently took a big first step toward making an arts-focused charter school in the city a reality. Karin Cevasco and Rebecca Fredrickson met with state education officials Friday in the first of three steps toward securing permission to open the Gate City Charter School for the Arts in the fall of 2013. Cevasco and Fredrickson spent last week putting the last touches on their charter school application and all other necessary paperwork before their meeting in Concord. They were happy and nervous. “We’re a little anxious and excited,” Cevasco said. “We’re looking forward to hearing their feedback.” Cevasco and Fredrickson have worked for about a year researching and preparing their plan after being dissatisfied with the lack of attention to the arts in public schools. After the meeting Friday with the charter school office at the state Department of Education, officials will review Gate City’s application for about 60 days before providing feedback. If revisions are required, Cevasco, Fredrickson and other parents who have become part of the team will work on them and then await approval. If they pass that hurdle, they will then meet with the state education commissioner, Virginia Barry. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:50:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/947494-196/some-on-nashua-board-of-education-not.html NASHUA – Several Board of Education members are still not convinced there is a need for a district-sponsored charter school, which could put the proposal in jeopardy. “The charter effort is the wrong answer to the right question,” Board of Education member Tom Vaughan said at a meeting earlier this month. A 21-person committee has been working since the fall to draft a vision for the charter school, which would open in the fall of 2013. At a meeting held Jan. 9, some of the broad ideas of the school were revealed, including having every teacher and student equipped with an electronic device, such as a netbook, laptop or iPad, for use in the classroom and at home. The school would serve students in grades 4 through 8, but would offer more flexibility, allowing students to move through grades levels at their own pace using a competency-based approach. But Vaughan and several other members on the board said there are still more questions than answers about why the district needs a charter school and why the innovative methods being considered for it can’t be used now in the city’s schools. For member Kim Muise, she has questions still about governance and who will have authority over the school. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:43:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/947409-196/nh-makes-progress-in-national-charter-school.html New Hampshire fell in the middle of the pack in an annual ranking of state charter school laws released by a charter school advocacy group last week. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools ranked New Hampshire 19th out of the 42 states that have charter school laws and regulations on the books, according to the report “Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Charter School Laws.” New Hampshire earned an overall score of 112 out of a possible 208, which was an increase from the score of 106 the state achieved last year. Still, the state dropped three spots in the rankings because of larger gains made in other states, according to the report. Maine, in its first year on the list after passing a law to allow charter schools and modeling after the alliance’s model, took the top spot with a score of 158. Other New England states also were ranked in the study: Massachusetts was fifth, with a score of 132; Rhode Island was 26th, with 103; and Connecticut was 29th, with 97. New Hampshire scored among the top states in several categories, including laws that allow a variety of charter schools, allowing the schools to be fiscally and legally autonomous, automatic collective bargaining exemptions and employee access to the state retirement system, according to the report. “The long-term viability of the charter school movement is primarily dependent on the quality of the charter schools that open,” Todd Ziebarth, the alliance’s vice president for state advocacy and support, said in a statement released with the report. “It’s critical that state lawmakers recognize the importance of charter school quality – and the impact that their laws have on it.” New Hampshire scored most of its points for having strong laws allowing for clear processes for schools to renew their charters, having a comprehensive data collection and monitoring process of the schools, having a clear application and review process for new charters, and for requiring performance-based contracts, according to the report. The state also enacted legislation last year that removed the cap on the number of charter schools the state Board of Education can approve, according to the report. The state’s score would improve if it allows for more ways for people to charter a new school and by making sure charter schools have the same access to operations and capital funding, according to the report. Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Cote on Twitter (@Telegraph_JoeC). Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:50:14 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/947433-196/montessori-charter-school-to-open-in-manchester.html MANCHESTER – The state’s first public Montessori charter school will open this fall in Manchester, where students will be able to learn through a hands-on curriculum based on choice and discovery. Mill Falls Charter School plans to open in September with an enrollment of about 90 students. The school will start out serving students in kindergarten through third grade, but there are plans to expand to sixth grade. Meryl Levin, the school’s parent founder and chair of the board of trustees, said classrooms will include a standalone kindergarten and mixed-age classrooms for grades 1-3, which coincides with the tenets of the Montessori method. “It works to develop the whole child,” Levin said. “Emotional and social growth is nurtured alongside academic growth. It’s a tried and true practice, used all around the world to reach and teach children. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:07:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/945094-196/charter-school-update-to-go-before-nashua.html NASHUA – Superintendent Mark Conrad will make another push next week for spending $15,525 on an education consulting firm, as the district moves forward with the development of a charter school. At a meeting Monday, Jan. 9, members of a 20-person committee are scheduled to give the Board of Education an update on the work they have done so far to craft a mission for the charter school. The committee has been meeting since the fall, working on narrowing the focus for the school, which wouldn’t open until the fall of 2013 at the earliest. As part of that discussion, Conrad will ask board members to approve a contract with 2Revolutions, a New York-based firm that specializes in developing different approaches in education. The proposal for the contract got a cold reception from some board members last month, questioning the need. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:40:15 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/943026-196/nashua-school-board-blasts-15.5k-plan-to.html NASHUA – Several Board of Education members blasted a proposal by administrators to spend $15,525 to hire a consulting firm to help with the development of a district-sponsored charter school. The board tabled the proposal at Monday night’s meeting, after some members questioned the need to hire a company called 2Revolutions, a New York-based firm that specializes in the development of innovative approaches in education. Board member Sandra Ziehm said she doesn’t look back favorably on the consultants the district has hired in her tenure, as far as what the expenses have yielded in the way of tangible results. “I do not look back over our history and see where any of them have been especially essential or valuable,” she said. “In fact, sometimes I think they’re totally disregarded.” Last week, members of the Board of Education’s finance committee reviewed a contract and gave a favorable recommendation to the full board. However, it was felt by the majority of the board that a decision on the contract should wait until more is known about where the proposed charter school is headed. “This contract seems to presuppose we’re moving forward with the charter school, which I don’t believe we’ve made a firm decision on,” he said. The three-month contract would be effective Jan. 2 through March 30 and would cost $15,525. Superintendent Mark Conrad, who has been championing the idea for a charter school in the city, said as the district narrows its focus on the specific mission of the school, the firm would help to cultivate the idea and provide resources to staff putting together the charter. On its Web site, the firm touts its “talent cloud,” which is a “pool of professionals with essential knowledge, skills and experience.” Conrad said the district would have access to that, as well as a database of successful approaches being implemented at other schools. “Part of what they can do is help in identifying other schools where we could look toward their practices and speak to those folks and see how they’re being successful,” Conrad said. The firm also is working with the Boston public school system and the Vermont Department of Education, according to its Web site. Board member Kim Muise said the firm seems to be a luxury, not an essential. “Unless there is something specific this group can give us that can’t be found without paying a consulting fee, I’m reluctant to approve it,” she said. Nashua High School South teacher Judy Loftus told the board she was concerned about the hiring of the firm when the district has had to make cuts in other programs over the past several years. “I’m puzzled about the district spending money to hire this firm,” Loftus said. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:41:02 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/937035-196/nashua-women-laying-groundwork-for-specialized-charter.html NASHUA – Dissatisfied with the lack of attention given to the arts in traditional public schools, Karin Cevasco and Rebecca Fredrickson came up with a solution: create their own school. The Gate City Charter School for the Arts is the brainchild of the two Nashua parents, who have spent the better part of this year laying the groundwork for a charter school application to be submitted to the New Hampshire Department of Education in January, with an anticipated opening in September 2013. The school would not just be an option for their own children, but would be a school of choice for all parents in the Nashua area who want to send their children to a school that would integrate arts into the instruction of the core academic subjects. Cevasco said public schools traditionally have art class only once a week and that it’s separate from the general curriculum. Their plan is to create a charter school at which arts is the common thread, connecting subjects such as math, reading and science. “Arts integration meets the needs of children who learn in different ways,” Cevasco said. One example of a lesson at the school would be students raising butterflies and recording observations using poetry, painting or sculpting. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:39:47 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/936271-196/charter-schools-among-unions-questions-for-boe.html NASHUA – Board of Education candidates were asked to weigh in on whether forming unions in charter schools should be allowed in a questionnaire distributed by the Nashua Teachers Union’s Committee on Political Education. Each of the five candidates running for four-year terms on the school board were asked to respond to six questions. With five seats up for grabs, the race is essentially uncontested. Still, the candidates’ positions on charter schools will likely come into play, as a committee will spend the next year coming up with a proposal for a district-sponsored charter school. The candidates were asked whether charter schools should be held to the same standards as traditional public schools and whether teachers and staff in charter schools should be able to organize and join a union. Board President Robert Hallowell, running for his second term, said charter schools are a tool the district can use to innovate and that they should be held to the same standards. But charter schools should be free from unions, he said. “I do not believe that charter school employees should be able to unionize – if they want the safety, administrative constraints and benefits of the standard public school, then they shouldn’t choose to teach in a charter-designated school,” Hallowell said. Elizabeth Van Twuyver, seeking her first political office, said union membership shouldn’t be required in a charter school. “The purpose of charter schools is to provide education devoid of some of the restrictions that public schools have,” Van Twuyver said. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:41:41 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinioneditorials/929067-263/full-speed-ahead-for-charter-school.html Nearly a year ago to the day, we heralded the news that New Hampshire was in line to receive an $11.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to encourage the creation of charter schools in the state (Aug. 6: “Brighter days ahead for charter schools”). At that time, we stated our belief that such schools can be a positive force in the education community and that there was no reason why Greater Nashua couldn’t be a receptive host to the growing charter school movement. So you can imagine our delight upon learning this week that the seeds for a new charter school are being planted right here in Nashua. On Monday night, the Board of Education took the first step toward the creation of a charter school, setting in motion a process that could lead to the opening of a district-sponsored school for fourth- through eighth-graders by the 2013-14 school year. At that meeting, the board adopted a formal mission statement and named nearly two-dozen people – board members, administrators, teachers, parents and others – to serve on either a steering committee or in working groups over the next 12 months to draft a detailed charter for the new school. Once complete, the steering committee will present its recommendations to the board, which will then vote to accept, modify or reject the proposal. If approved, Nashua’s would join 10 other public charter schools now operating in the state. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:39:12 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/928693-196/progress-for-charter-school-plan.html NASHUA – The Board of Education signed off on moving forward with the development of a district-sponsored charter school Monday night, though a host of questions remain about governance, cost and necessity. Nashua is one of the state’s first school districts to pursue the creation of a charter school. Administrators spent time earlier this year researching other charter school models and brought a proposed mission statement to the Board of Education on Monday night. However, several board members questioned how the creation and operation of a charter school would affect the rest of the city’s schools. Board member Tom Vaughan raised concerns about the administrative resources it would drain from the district and whether there was truly a need for such a school. “I’m not sure that we need this kind of Manhattan project to improve instruction in the district,” Vaughan said. The mission statement proposes that the school will “serve as a laboratory for creative learning environments for teaching and learning which will over time be replicated to other learning environments for the benefit of all Nashua students.” The board asked for clarification on the intent of the school and approved a working group that will spend the next nine months drafting a charter. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:41:25 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/928400-196/charter-school-process-to-begin-in-nashua.html NASHUA – The Board of Education will be asked this week to approve the mission for a district-sponsored charter school, as well as the appointment of a working group that will spend the next year drafting the charter. Earlier this summer, Superintendent Mark Conrad told the board he intended to propose the creation of a charter school that would be sponsored by the Nashua School District. The mission statement going before the board at a meeting Monday night states the school would “serve as a laboratory for creative learning environments for teaching and learning which will over time be replicated to other learning environments for the benefit of all Nashua students.” Among the school’s guiding principles would be that “student learning shall be highly personalized and engaging” and would “foster innovative environments for student and staff learning without the constraints of traditional models of education.” The school would have to operate within existing or reduced resources, with a cost per pupil equal to or less than that of the entire district and a diverse enrollment similar to other city schools. “We’re not seeking approval for the charter school,” Conrad said last week. “We just want to begin the process of creating the charter.” Monday’s meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Nashua High School North. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:40:56 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/922596-196/charter-school-idea-put-to-nashua-board.html NASHUA – A district-sponsored charter school would serve as a “learning laboratory,” where innovative approaches to education could be used with the goal of taking what works and applying it to other schools in the city. That was the broad idea put before Board of Education members last week, as administrators took the first formal step toward opening a charter school in Nashua. It is still early in the process and there are more questions than answers, particularly when it comes to the specifics of what type of school the district is looking to create. Superintendent Mark Conrad proposed putting together a committee that would come up with the charter proposal over the next year, to present to the school board for approval sometime next year with the goal of opening it at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, at the earliest. The board will at some point this summer have to approve moving forward with the creation of the committee. “We can’t continue to do business the way we are,” Conrad said. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:39:53 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/921469-196/nashua-school-district-seeks-to-open-charter.html NASHUA – School administrators will propose moving forward with the creation of a district-sponsored charter school. Superintendent Mark Conrad said he would put forward the recommended mission for the charter school to the Board of Education at a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Nashua High School North. The board would have to approve moving forward with the process and, ultimately, the school itself. The board would then oversee the operations of the school and be responsible for making sure it was meeting its charter. Conrad was hesitant to release details of what the proposed school would look like before speaking with board members, but said a charter school should be a place where innovative ways of teaching can be explored. “The advantage of this process is we could begin thinking from the ground up about new approaches to education,” Conrad said. Conrad will recommend that a committee of teachers, administrators, parents and board members spend the next year developing the charter. If the district were to open a charter school, Nashua students would receive preference before those in other communities, he said. Since receiving an $11.6 million federal grant to help start new charter schools, state education officials have been looking to districts such as Nashua and Manchester to put forward proposals. Charter schools can either be created by an independent group or be sponsored by a school district. Nashua would be eligible for up to $600,000 from the federal grant to help with startup costs, said Roberta Tenney, who oversees charter schools for the state Department of Education. There are 10 public charter schools in the state, including the Academy for Science and Design in Merrimack. There’s also the Virtual Learning Academy, which provides online courses to students across the state. Students either take individual classes or enroll as full-time students. There is no tuition for charter schools. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:41:11 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/914614-196/nashua-exploring-charter-school-options.html EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part two of a four-day series examining innovation and reform in our local public schools. The series will culminate with a public forum sponsored by The Telegraph on Thursday, April 7, called “Innovation and Reform: A Community Discussion on Education.” The event will be held in the media center at Nashua High School South from 6-8 p.m. It was the school’s atmosphere that resonated most with Mark Lucas. “The culture was just phenomenal,” said Lucas, principal of Birch Hill Elementary School in Nashua. “Just the way the kids spoke; how happy they were to be at that school.” Lucas was describing his visit the week before to the Great Bay eLearning Charter School in Exeter. Lucas was part of a group of administrators conducting a site visit to the school, part of the Nashua School District’s preliminary exploration into opening a charter school. As Superintendent Mark Conrad points out, the district is only in the beginning stages of looking at the concept. Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:34:57 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/907214-227/nh-friendlier-but-still-severely-constrains-charter.html New Hampshire moved up to 16th from 19th among states that are friendly toward charter school growth and support, based on a report released recently by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Despite the movement up the list over the past year, New Hampshire remains one of nine states that “severely constrains charter school growth,” according to Todd Ziebarth, lead author of the report “Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws.” The report analyzed the country’s 41 state charter school laws and scored how well it believed they allowed for quality and growth. A bill passed in New Hampshire last year lifted a moratorium, allowing the state board to approve new charter schools from Jan. 1-June 30. Lifting the cap helped the state receive an $11.6 million federal grant to provide seed money for as many as 20 additional charter schools. But that wasn’t enough progress, according to Ziebarth, vice president of state advocacy and support for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “New Hampshire’s law needs significant improvements in several areas, most immediately removing the pilot nature of the program,” Ziebarth wrote. “The state also needs to ensure equitable operational and categorical funding, provide equitable access to capital funding and facilities, and provide additional authorizing options for charter applicants.” Roberta Tenney, who oversees charter schools for the state Department of Education, said the state’s movement up in the ranking is a testament to efforts made to expand learning options for students. “New Hampshire has made tremendous inroads,” Tenney said. Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:35:47 EST