District Chartering: Choice can be for school boards, too
It would be naïve and inaccurate to claim that charter schools don’t remain a burr under the saddle of most school boards, district administrators and teachers union leaders in Minnesota. Losing an exclusive franchise and claim on students and the money they bring with them is not an easy thing to accept.
Never the less, it’s important to note that, since 1992, almost ten percent of Minnesota’s school districts have granted a total of 62 charters, many of which have been renewed and most of which are still operating. And, in a few places around the state, chartering is now being done pro-actively by districts — to add new choices and new opportunities for students, families and teachers.
One of the more pro-active districts is Northfield, a well-educated college community just 45 miles south of Minneapolis. The Northfield school board has now granted three charters, including an innovative new high school — Northfield School of Arts and Technology — that opened fall 2003. Just 15 miles away in Faribault, Superintendent Keith Dixon has become a near folk-hero in the charter school movement with his positive and professional approach in chartering a former district elementary school in nearby Nerstrand. Dixon also points with pride to a still unused provision his board negotiated in the district’s master contract, allowing district school teachers to set up charter-like schools within existing district buildings.
Another 20 miles southwest of Faribault, the district board and administrators in Waseca have pro-actively chartered a new elementary school that offers an additional choice to the district’s students, including students from a growing number of Hispanic families living in the community. And in suburban Minneapolis, the Hopkins School District — arguably one of the state’s best — has opened a new arts high school in partnership with local artists and a highly regarded community theater group.
Perhaps of greatest interest is discussion now going on in Minneapolis about how to deal with natural enrollment decline and competition from charters and other choice options that has left the state’s largest district with an estimated 800 empty classrooms.
Minneapolis is clearly a school district at a major crossroads in its history, in part because of choices made by what will soon be ten percent of its students to attend charter schools. One obvious answer is for the district to ask parents and students why they’ve made that choice and to then proactively create new charter schools that respond.