MALDEN — The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) on Monday invited Equity Lab Charter School to submit a full application for its proposed Lynn charter school.
Equity has proposed opening a grade 5 through 12 school with a 640-student enrollment and a scheduled 2018 opening date.
Final applications are due back to ESE by November 1. Once the agency receives the
applications, ESE staff and external review panelists with expertise in education, business, law
and governance will review and evaluate the proposals.
In addition, ESE will hold public hearings in the areas where the founding groups propose to open a school. State officials will also conduct a review of any public comment submitted. Acting state Education Commissioner Jeff Wulfson will review all of the materials and make his recommendation to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education if he believes one or both of the proposals should receive a charter.
The Board will vote at its February 2018 meeting.
“I look forward to seeing more details about these two proposals in the coming weeks and
hearing from the communities that they would serve,” Wulfson said.
Equity Lab proposes to have an 8.5-hour school day and focus on project-based learning, and another charter proponent — Phoenix Academy Lawrence — would serve students who have dropped out or who are at risk for doing so.
According to ESE, many communities still have room for new charter school seats under existing caps, which limit the amount of net school spending a school district can spend on charter school tuition. The two proposals that are moving to the next step would be in communities that are still below their caps.
ESE will announce the schedule of public hearings on the proposals after
receiving the full applications.
Commonwealth charter schools are fully autonomous and operate independently of the local
school district. Charter schools are open to all Massachusetts students, with enrollment
preference given to students in the district or region where the school is located.
There are 80 operating charter schools in Massachusetts, and they collectively serve more than 40,000 students. For more information, visit http://www.doe.mass.edu/charter/.