Today Mid-City Charter Schools officially applied to charter Thurgood Marshall as a pre-K through 8th grade school. We should learn by February if our application is accepted.
Mid-City Charter Schools was created in an effort to more clearly define issues pertaining to Board governance after the application by the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization to charter Dibert Elementary was declined. The reviewers of MCNO’s charter application were confused about how an education committee under the supervision of MCNO would have authority, and where the proverbial “buck” stopped. The sole function of Mid-City Charter Schools is to govern the charter school.
For facilities, we put down Thurgood Marshall as our first choice, AD Crossman as our second choice, and Fisk-Howard as our third choice. Those were the only schools available in Mid-City for charter organizations according to the RSD. Dibert was specifically listed as an unavailable school, as were all other open schools being operated by the RSD.
In addition to being more clear on issues of governance, this application was stronger in that it precisely listed the experience that our partnering education management team (Education Design Management) brings to the table. While it remains true that EDM as a company has never chartered a school, their employees have a great amount of experience with charter schools and education in Louisiana. The president of EDM, Dianna Dyer, put in a great amount of work on the application, and we owe her our thanks.
We only had about one month from the time that we received the rubrics explaining why NACSA turned MCNO down until the application due date. I only decided to apply this time around after speaking at length to many people who currently work at RSD schools. They all said that if we really want a community based school that offers an excellent public education, then it has to be self governed. These people also asked that we apply again, as in their opinion, the RSD was doing a poor job running the schools.
The application that we put together is not perfect due to the time constraints. But I do think that it is a very strong application, and I am cautiously optimistic that we will be approved. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see students at Thurgood Marshall again? Moreover, in 2008, the building will be 100 years old.
If anyone would like to see a copy of the application, email Michael Homan.
