News
Charter school planner is confident
Thursday, Jun 25, 2009
By CAROLYN CLICK
It will likely be another two weeks before organizers of a Richland 2 charter school learn whether they will gain state approval to proceed with the proposed elementary school.
But a top organizer of Hope Academy Charter School said Wednesday he is “100 percent confident” the school will be certified.
The S.C. Charter Schools Advisory Committee on Tuesday gave the leaders of the school seven days to provide additional information about its plan to open in northeast Richland County, said Joel Medley, charter magnets associate for the S.C. Department of Education.
A three-member panel “is going to look at that information and make a recommendation to the full committee and then there will be a vote to certify it as legally compliant or not,” he said.
The Rev. Michael Letts, who led the petition drive for the charter, said the changes requested were mainly procedural and could be handled easily.
The Hope Academy Charter School would operate as a year-round K-5 school with an initial enrollment of 220. Organizers plan to add sixth grade in the second year of operation, followed by seventh and eighth grades in the next two years, Letts said.
Letts, executive pastor of Hope Baptist Church , said the year-round concept “has drawn a lot of attention.”
His church operates Hope Academy preschool and many parents expressed interest in expanding its rigorous curriculum into a charter school, he said.
It is only the second charter proposed in the Richland 2 district. The 11-member state committee has already certified a charter high school, the Richland 2 Charter High School, which will serve 80 nontraditional students beginning in summer 2010.
If the state committee certifies the charter as legal, it will be up to the Richland 2 school board to grant final approval.
There are 35 charter schools operating in South Carolina, predominantly in the Greenville and Charleston areas.
About 9,000 students are in charter schools in the state, a number that is expected to increase to about 12,000 next year, Medley said.
Reach Click at (803) 771-8386 or by email at cclick@thestate.com.
