The Denver Post
September 07, 2004
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2384470,00.html#

Charters Targeting Niches in Populace

By KAREN ROUSE, Denver Post Staff Writer

The New America School opens next month to new immigrants who want English lessons and a diploma.

Two nonprofits in Denver have teamed up to open a charter school for homeless youth in 2005. And in Aurora, a multi-nationality group of parents plans to open a charter school that will attract Korean, African, Mexican, and other international students to its science-, technology-, and math-based curriculum next year.

For more than a decade, charter schools have been an alternative for Colorado parents less than satisfied with traditional offerings. The lure is often a focused curriculum, small classes, and parental involvement in the school's operation.

"The idea of charter schools offering a particular program . . . is one of the premises on which chartering is based," said William Haft, associate director of National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

But these new applicants are looking beyond curriculum to target specific niche groups.

"It's something that has occurred in other places, and I do see it as a natural development," Haft said.

One reason is that charters have an advantage: flexibility, Haft said. While districts, large ones in particular, are charged with serving the needs of a wide range of students, charters have the flexibility to design programs to serve a specific population, and decide how dollars are spent, Haft said.

Jim Griffin, executive director of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, agrees that districts must often be concerned with the needs of a diverse group.

From their perspective, "if you're serving 85 percent of your families well, you probably think you're doing well," he said.

Madolyn Paroski, president of the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education, said districts can be prohibited by budgets, space availability, and other needs to design a school that caters to a particular population.

"There are times when charters can fill niches that public schools are not filling at this time, and they add choice to the district," she said. However, Paroski cautioned that they need to be quality programs because the students still belong to the district.

Urban Peak Denver has been providing shelter, meal, health, and other services to homeless and runaway youths since 1988, said Jamie Van Leeuwen, associate executive director of Urban Peak Denver.

Last year, 180 kids received a GED through the organization's education program, he said.

Now the Jared Polis Foundation and Urban Peak are teaming up to expand services to create a charter school, Van Leeuwen said.

The school will be attached to services already provided by Urban Peak, such as addiction counseling and medical care. "It's something that hasn't been done," Van Leeuwen said.

Organizers of the Lotus School for Excellence have been meeting with community groups to gain support for a fifth- through twelfth-grade charter school in Aurora Public Schools. Organizers include natives of Russia and Chile as well as the United States, said coordinator Tim Saka, a native of Turkey.

While all students are welcome—charters cannot discriminate on the basis of race, nationality or ethnicity—the organizers hope to draw from Aurora's large international population.

"The international students . . . are not going to be lost in the crowd," Saka said.

Board member Rinaldo Valenzuela said, "Having kids from different parts of the world will be nice because they will have access to different cultures."

These latest ventures aren't the first to target specific populations. The Rocky Mountain Deaf School has been serving hearing-impaired children since 1997. Passage Charter School in Montrose provides job and parenting training to teen parents, in addition to a core education. And Ridge View Academy, a Denver Public Schools charter in Watkins, serves young offenders.

Charters are semi-autonomous schools operated by a group of parents, teachers, and/or community members within a school district. They operate under a charter agreement between the district and the members of the charter school's governing board. Of the 108 charter schools operating in Colorado this year, a dozen are new, according to the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

In Denver, the New America School, a high school designed for recent immigrants whose work and family schedules prohibit them from attending a traditional high school, will open Sept. 7. When the charter school's founders approached Denver Public Schools for charter approval last year, the board thought it was "innovative," said board member Elaine Gantz Berman.

The board recognized a need was being filled, but aren't leaving it up to charters to do all the work, she said. DPS is working on a non-charter immigrant school of its own, Gantz said.

"We want to do as thorough a job for all students and not just mainstream students," she said.

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