A group of citizens, including one member of the Andover School Committee, has proposed a new public high school for Andover, the STEAM Studio Charter High School. A summary of the school can be found on the STEAM Studio web site, and their charter school application proposal can be found at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) web site.
The Bancroft PTO encourages all parents to educate themselves on the proposed charter school, including the financial implications of adding a new high school to the Andover Public School district.
Over the past couple of weeks several financial models have been circulated to summarize the charter school impact, including one from the School Committee and one from STEAM Studio. One point of agreement — whether educational costs are considered in town-wide aggregate as the School Committee has, or divided into per-student metrics as charter school proponents prefer — is that that funding for a new high school will be on the order of $5 million annually after the state’s initial tuition reimbursement period expires.
We urge all parents to weigh in on this large funding allocation. It is not just an issue for the high school, and has potential to impact each existing Andover public school, including Bancroft.
The community has a short window to voice opinions:
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is holding a public hearing for community members to comment on the proposed STEAM Studio Charter High School in Andover:
TOMORROW, Thursday, November 21st from 4pm to 6pm
Memorial Hall Library, 3rd floor
Additionally, if you cannot attend this meeting, DESE is accepting written comments until January 3, 2014. Please send email to charterschools@doe.mass.edu or mail letters to:
Mass Dept of Elementary & Secondary Education
c/o Charter School Office
75 Pleasant Street
Malden, MA 02148
Additional information can be found in following links:
— UPDATE (December 19th): Additional information from the Andover School Committee here: http://www.aps1.net/charterschool
— Andover School Committee’s initial statement in opposition of the charter school.
— Discussion of charter school financial impact at the October 29th Andover School Committee meeting (video replay, begin at minute 1:40) and additional brief discussion at the November 14th Andover School Committee meeting (begin at minute 25:25).
— Discussion of charter school financial impact at the November 13th Andover Finance Committee meeting (video replay, begin at minute 77:00).
— Information on Massachusetts State funding for public schools (chapter 70) at the DESE web site.