Two public charter schools are a step nearer to opening, which would make them the first such institutions in Montgomery County, where past efforts to establish charters have been stymied.
Leaders of the proposed Global Garden school and Crossways Community Montessori applied to the county’s school district by the early March deadline — the first groups to have done so in nearly a decade.
Global Garden would serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade with a primary years International Baccalaureate program as well as Spanish and Arabic language instruction. Its hoped-for location is in Rockville, at an unused building behind White Flint Mall.
Community Montessori would grow out of Crossway Community Inc., a Kensington nonprofit focused on providing educational programs to low-income single mothers and their children. The school would serve students in pre-kindergarten through third grade, adding one grade each year until sixth grade. It would be located at the Kensington center.
“This was a natural opportunity,” said Chief Executive Officer Kathleen Guinan. “Our hands-on experience has shown us that it just makes good sense.”
While charter school proponents often sell themselves as alternatives to failing districts, Guinan said that was not the case in Montgomery County.
“They do a really excellent job. This is just an additional, more intensive approach,” she said.
Two charter applications early in the decade were not supported by Superintendent Jerry Weast, and ultimately rejected by the Board of Education. The denials left a sour taste in the mouth of would-be reformers. But advocates hope the perception of the schools is shifting.
“Originally, people thought charters were an intervention for poorly performing schools, but it’s broader than that,” said David Borinsky, president of the Maryland Charter School Network. “All it means is site-based management. And that, with capable leadership, is always better than hierarchical leadership.”
Montgomery’s current applications are under review by district officials. They will go to the school board later in the spring, with a recommendation from Weast for approval or denial.
Neighboring Prince George’s County has four charter schools, with two more slated to open in the fall of 2010. About 60 charter schools operate in D.C., serving one-third of the city’s students and making it one of the nation’s largest school-choice experiments. No charter schools operate in Northern Virginia.
