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The other school board
Appointed body oversees 21 public charters
(Published May 3, 2004)

By STEPHANIE BRINSON
Special to The Common Denominator

In slow, erratic drips, people stepped through the door of Suite 401 at 1436 U St. NW and glided to a seat in the audience – two sections of about 24 chairs arranged to form a makeshift aisle down the middle. The chairs faced a blank, white room divider that signified the presenters on the other side were not yet ready.

Audience members – District of Columbia residents, administration staff and school representatives – talked softly to each other and read through papers in folders on their laps. After a short while, when the door to the office stopped opening and about 12 people occupied the chairs, the divider in front of them quietly rose off the carpet to reveal the simple set and five-member cast that would be leading the events of the evening.

It was the third Monday evening in April and time for the D.C. Public Charter School Board’s monthly public meeting. Among the agenda items to be discussed that night were graduation requirements, disciplinary action for two schools that failed to meet board guidelines and reviews of five schools’ academic programs.

The PCSB was authorized by the U.S. Congress to grant charters to create public charter schools in the District. The PCSB was created to offer D.C. residents, teachers and officials another option when looking to receive a charter to create a school. The D.C. Board of Education also grants charters.

Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools hold a greater degree of autonomy in the organization and function of their institutions. They have control over all aspects of their educational programs, staffs, faculties and budgets. They are also free from certain restrictions and guidelines traditional public schools face, such as requiring licenses for teachers.

In exchange for this control, however, public charter schools are held accountable for the academic success of their students. According to D.C. law, the schools have to report their progress to their chartering authority every five years. If a school fails to meet its expectations within its five-year charter agreement, its charter may be revoked.

The PCSB works independently from the Board of Education, setting its own guidelines and principles for the 21 charter schools it has authorized, ensuring that they meet their goals and that those goals are in keeping with the needs and drive toward student achievement.

Chairman Thomas Loughlin said the board’s independence is rare in an educational system.

"It’s unusual to have a completely autonomous entity that monitors schools," he said. "I think it worked well for the city."

A similar set up exists in Arizona, which contains a State Board for Charter Schools in addition to the State Board of Education.

Each of the PCSB’s seven members were appointed by the mayor to the three-year, non-paid position of board member in which they can serve no more than two consecutive terms.

That evening, with open folders and papers scattered in front of them, each member sat before a large wooden table in the center of the room in Suite 401. They listened intently as School Support Analyst Tammy Troy reviewed school program goals across from them at the farthest end of the table.

Board member Tom Nida reclined in his chair, fingers grazing his temple. Joseph Horning, one of the founding members of the board in addition to Hope Hill and Loughlin, flipped quietly through pages in his lap, his glasses resting on the end of his nose.

Two of the board’s newest members were absent that evening – Kathy Etemad and Lawrence Patrick. In addition to serving on the board, Etemad works full time as director of government relations for Comcast Cable and is a former city council aide. Patrick is the president and chief executive officer of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.

Loughlin leaned forward in his plush swivel chair, chin resting in his hand, his brow furrowed. Sworn in during February 1997, Loughlin served on the board for seven years, joining it as vice-chairman when it was first established. He stepped up to chairman of the board in August 2002.

When the PCSB began in February 1997, he said, charter schools themselves were in their infancy around the country. The first charter school had opened only five years before in Minnesota, and there was originally a lot of confusion about the role the schools played in the community.

Executive Director Josephine Baker sat with her fingers intertwined in front of her chin. She served as the first chairman of the board and said the PCSB started as a blank slate. It had to develop its own application process, and set its own terms and restrictions, among other responsibilities.

The PCSB looked around the country to adopt the best techniques that were being utilized at the time by other states’ chartering authorities. Loughlin said being in the nation’s capital made the new committee feel like they were under a magnifying glass with pressure to set a good example.

Vice Chairman Dora Marcus sat upright in her seat, her gaze fixed and pensive on Troy as she spoke. Marcus joined the PCSB in February 2001 after she received a call from a staff member in the mayor’s office asking if she would be interested in serving on the board. Around the same time, she was asked to serve on the school board for the Options Public Charter School, one of the 18 charters authorized by the Board of Education.

Marcus opted to join the PCSB because she wanted to have a greater impact on the education system.

"I had a really strong feeling about how I wanted to help the children of D.C.," she said. "I really wanted to be helpful to more schools than one."

By serving on the board, Marcus said she hoped to curb the digital and achievement divide that occurs between disadvantaged students whose schools do not possess the tools and technology to help them succeed.

She thought charter schools would help equalize children’s chances to obtain excellent schooling by giving them the opportunity to obtain the kind of technological education and general basic education they may lack in their local public schools.

"They provide children with educational opportunities beyond a single choice dictated by their address," Marcus said of charter schools.

Proponents cite school choice as one of the greatest benefits charter schools offer. Enrollment in public charter schools in the district is on a first come first serve basis and is open to all students, regardless of their neighborhood, ability, socioeconomic status, academic achievement, or ethnicity.

Proponents of charter schools note that they can be the source of new and emerging trends in education that can be adopted by traditional public schools. Because of their limited restrictions, charter schools have the ability to experiment with innovative teaching methods and programs.

The question of whether charter schools perform as effectively as traditional public schools remains in the minds of some critics, however. Some have concerns about the selectiveness of the application process and the quality of charter applications that are approved.

In response to critics, Loughlin asserts that the PCSB sets a tight structural protocol for its charter application process, in which the board rejects "far more applications that we accept."

Since its inception, the board has seen approximately 90 charters and has approved only 27. But, Loughlin said the quality of the applications is becoming stronger. Out of 11 new charter school applications received last year, the board approved six to open this fall.

"The board will pretty much charter any strong application it sees," he said.

Some residents and officials also fear the effects charter schools may have on existing public schools in a community. Because school funding is allotted on a per pupil basis, charter schools and traditional public schools often compete for students.

Some states, such as New Hampshire, Maryland and Iowa, establish charter laws but do not create charter schools. They may make the application process very difficult to do so. Brenda Belton, executive director for charter schools for the Board of Education, said some states don’t see charter schools as part of the public education system, but as a big change that is taking resources and students away from public schools.

Before the creation of the PCSB, the Board of Education existed as the single chartering authority in the District. But the initial feeling of the government and residents was that the BOE wouldn’t take a strong position on chartering because of a potential conflict of interest.

Upon its inception, the PCSB faced a lot of resistance from the Board of Education and the district’s public school system. The board had difficulty obtaining their cooperation to help them gain access to facilities, federal grants and student records.

"We didn’t have any collaborative communication going," Baker said.

Since then, however, relationships between the groups has improved, Loughlin noted.

Six new charter schools approved by the board are slated to open this fall: Bridges PCS, Howard University Middle School of Math and Science, William E. Doar PCS for the Performing Arts, Two Rivers, E.L. Haynes and D.C. Bilingual.