6 charter plans up for hearings

The Philadelphia School District will hold hearings Monday on six proposed charter schools, including one that its founders say would be the nation's first high school for teens in foster care.

Founders of the proposed Arise Academy Charter High School say their goal is reducing the 75 percent dropout rate among foster-care teens in the city and providing educational stability for them, regardless of their foster care placement. The charter also would provide additional support services for students.

Jill Welsh Davis, chairwoman of the proposed charter's board, said a feasibility study found that students fall six months behind every time they have to switch schools because their foster placement has changed. Many teens are moved four or five times in foster care, she said. Each time, they fall further behind, increasing the risk they will leave high school without a diploma.

Arise Academy is sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, which spent more than two years researching ways to address the dropout problem among foster-care students, Davis said.

Founders hope to launch the charter in July with 200 ninth through 12th graders. The school would be open to students in foster care throughout the city.

The city's Department of Human Services is among several city departments and agencies that favor the proposed charter.

"We are very supportive of the idea and concept," Alicia Taylor, director of communications at DHS, said yesterday.

Arise was one 17 charter applications submitted to the district in October. Two were withdrawn. A panel that evaluated the applications for the district said the six were strong enough to advance to hearings.

The hearings will begin at 8:50 a.m. in the School District's Education Center at 440 N. Broad St. Arise will lead off the hearing.

The other five proposed charters and the times of their hearings are: 10 a.m., the Business of Entertainment Charter Preparatory School, grades 9-12; 11 a.m., Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) West Philadelphia Prep Charter, grades 5-8; 1 p.m., Leon H. Sullivan Opportunities Charter School, grades 9-12; 2 p.m., Oxford Academy Charter School, grades K-8; and 3 p.m., Tacony Academy Charter School, grades K-12.

Representatives from each proposed charter will make a 10-minute presentation. They also will answer questions from a review panel that will forward recommendations to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission.

Barbara Farley, a district spokeswoman, said the commission was expected to vote on the charters in late spring.

Because of the district's fiscal problems, the commission still has not voted on the 11 charter proposals that faced hearings more than a year ago. The commission has delayed that vote until May.

Charters are independent, taxpayer-funded schools that are free from some government regulations.

The district will spend $279 million this academic year on 61 charter schools in the city that enroll 30,785 students.

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