New charter schools apply to open across region

By Matt Byrne, Town Correspondent

Rejected by the state last year, a group of parents and educators in Somerville has reapplied to establish a new charter school in the city.

The 135-page prospectus, submitted by supporters of the Somerville Progressive Charter School, was among 22 submitted to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for review.

The 22 applications are up from seven submitted last year, according to the state, due in part to loosened restrictions on the number of charters allowed in Boston and Lawrence. In all, five of the schools could end up serving communities north of Boston.
 
The Pioneer Charter School of Science  seeks to add three schools that would build on the curriculum at the original location in Everett, which graduated its first class in June. Named Pioneer Charter Schools II-IV, each would house 360 students clustered from the communities of Danvers, Lynn, Peabody, Salem and Saugus; Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, and Tyngsborough; and Medford, Melrose, Saugus, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Woburn.

The Asia Pacific Charter School, with a proposed maximum of 300 students, could draw from Lynnfield, North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, Peabody, Wakefield, and Wilmington. The BridgeSmart Preparatory Academy Charter School, with a proposed 475 students, could serve Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, and Revere.

The Fenix Charter School proposed to teach 600 students in Lynn. The YouthBuild Charter Academy would serve 173 students from Lawrence.

For the next step, the Department of Education by mid-September will decide which prospectuses are strong enough to submit a full application, which must be submitted by Nov. 7. After review and evaluation by department staff and other experts, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester will make his recommendations to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. New charters will be awarded by a Feb. 26 vote of the board.

Selena Fitanides, a founding member of the Somerville charter group, said her supporters have taken into account criticism received from state officials during last year's process, and streamlined parts of the application that explains how the charter school will better serve students, especially those whose first language is Spanish.

"A lot of the wording throughout was simplified and clarified, but the mission remains the same," Fitanides said Thursday. "We tried to communicate it more clearly this time."

From the outset, the Somerville Progressive Charter School founders have focused on the English-language learners, who they say need personalized attention to bring their performance up to grade level. On the new prospectus, the curriculum and after-school language programs have been narrowed to include only Spanish, superfluous ideas have been removed, and the way data will be tracked has been simplified, Fitanides said.

The curriculum proposed bolsters the core subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The proposal also expands maximum expected enrollment by 95 students, to a total of 520, once the program matures to include kindergarten through eighth grade.
Last year and into the early months of 2012, a swell of opponents formed Progress for Somerville Together, a group that said the charter school was wrong for Somerville, which currently hosts one other charter, Prospect Hill Academy.

A representative of the group said its members have yet to fully digest the new proposal. "If the prospectus is awesome, thats one thing," said Michael Chiu, spokesman for the group. "If its the same as last year, we'll figure out the best way to either improve it or oppose it."

Matt Byrne can be reached at M­Byrne.Globe@gmail.com.