Holy charter! More than 20 groups applied to create new public charter schools, bowling over last year’s 13 completed applications.
The D.C. Public Charter School Board received 21 applications and accepted 19 completed ones after the Feb. 1 application deadline, and boy do these run the gamut: pre-schools; dual-language elementary schools; an all-male middle school; college prep schools; and GED programs, among many more.
The Washington Examiner’s Sunday cover story was about the booming interest in opening charter schools in the District. We’ve also written about the intense interest seen even at the board’s first information session.
If approved, the schools will open in the fall of 2012, but there are plenty of hurdles to clear first: During the next seven weeks, each applicant will undergo a technical review, and its founding groups/proposed principals will be interviewed by the board. Public hearings to present their proposals to the public and the board are scheduled for March 21 and 22, before the charter board makes its final decision at its April 25 meeting.
Last year, the board approved four new schools, which are opening this fall.
Good luck, applicants!
