Skip to content
Education
Link copied to clipboard

SRC approves new KIPP charter, transfers another to Mastery

KIPP West will open in 2016 after a revised application was approved. Mastery will take over Young Scholars Frederick Douglass next year.

THE SCHOOL Reform Commission last night approved the opening of a new KIPP charter school and transferred management of a failing charter to Mastery.

KIPP West Philadelphia, which was one of 34 charter applications denied in February, submitted a revised application last month to address concerns about governance, qualifications of staff and the proposed opening date. The SRC voted 3-1 to grant it a three-year charter for grades K-4, beginning in 2016. The school was approved for 200 students in the first year and may enroll up to 375 by 2018-19.

Chairwoman Marge Neff, who participated in the meeting via conference call, voted against the application (Neff also opposed all 39 new charter applications earlier this year). Commissioner Feather Houstoun said that she did not think the tweaked application met the standard set for new charters, but that a split vote would put the body on shaky legal ground in case of an appeal.

"I thought this application did meet the conditions," Commissioner Bill Green said after the vote, without elaborating.

With the approval, six new charters will open in 2016, but they will not impact the budget for next school year.

The commission also voted in favor of Mastery Charter assuming control of Young Scholars Frederick Douglass in North Philadelphia, one of the seven original district schools converted to charters in 2010. Young Scholars, whose charter was up for renewal, approached Mastery about a transfer when it became clear that the SRC would not renew it because the school failed to meet academic standards in five years.

Several parents and staffers at the school, testifying in support of the transfer, said that learning conditions had improved and that they believed that Mastery would help students blossom even more.

"We can't afford for our kids to go backward," Gale Fisher-Glenn, a member of Douglass' School Advisory Council, told the SRC. "We have failed them once. Let's not fail them again."

Mastery will take over the school - which has 780 students in grades K-8 - in September. In a statement released by Young Scholars, the group said it believed the transition was better than going through a lengthy appeals process.

"We believe that Mastery will be able to build upon the strong foundation we have built by employing the same teachers and staff and maintaining the strong partnerships that the Douglass community now enjoys," the statement said.

In other matters, several school nurses testified against the district's recent request for proposal to explore privatizing health services. They said they fear that the move would eliminate certified school nurses.

"Nurses provide much more than the mandated duties," said Nancy Markey, a nurse at Taggert Elementary in South Philly. "We save lives physically and emotionally."

Prior to the meeting, dozens of members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents nurses, rallied outside the district's North Broad Street headquarters, vowing to fight the changes.