Last June, the Connecticut State Board of Education approved increases in enrollment at new and existing charter schools – from 7,132 students in 2013-14 to 8,183 students in 2014-15, a proposed increase of 1,051 students. But the final enrollment numbers changed a bit in the last several months because the State Board of Education changed the final numbers twice in the last several months. The proposed number of students that will be enrolled in state charter schools is slightly lower that what was planned in June, however the increase from 2014 to 2015 is still one of the largest in the last decade.
First, the State Board of Education approved a resolution to expand charter school enrollments on June 4. (The link has the document) The enrollment proposed for state charter schools would have been 8,183 students.
The State Board approved increases for many, but not all, state charter schools in June. The Board expanded enrollment at 13 out of 18 charter schools, 4 kept the same enrollment, and one charter school, Trailblazers Academy in Stamford, will have lower student enrollment. Many of these enrollment increases were approved through a Board waiver to the enrollment cap in Connecticut’s charter law.
In short, the State Board of Education waived size requirements so that these charter schools could have student enrollments that are larger than state law typically allows. The State’s reasoning, based on a fairly recent part of Connecticut’s charter school law (in the application section), was that their overall achievement test results were better than the town/city school districts overall achievement test results in which the charters are located. (This is an incredibly flawed policy and I’ll take this up later in a separate post.)
Things can change quickly though. In June and July, Jumoke/FUSE charter management corporation faced a growing list of allegations and revelations that has led to FBI investigation.
With the rapid rise and demise of the Jumoke/Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE) private charter management corporation, the proposed Booker T. Washington Academy (BTWA) charter school in New Haven submitted a revised enrollment and management plan to the State BoE. Initially, the State approved a plan for the now defunct Jumoke/FUSE to manage Booker T. Washington Academy charter school.
The State Board of Education approved the new plan and a new management corporation for BTWA in an early August resolution. The Board also reduced the enrollment to open next year with 120 students rather than the 225 students that were first approved in June.
Interestingly, the original Jumoke Academy, formerly managed by Jumoke/FUSE, was placed on probation. But Jumoke Academy was still allowed to expand by 90 students. Jumoke was placed on probation because of its tangled relationship with Jumoke/FUSE.
So instead of the 8,183 students at charter schools in the upcoming school year that the Board approved in June, the total enrollment in early August stood at 8,078 students. So where did the remaining allocation for 105 students go that was supposed to go to Booker T. Washington with Jumoke/FUSE, but was cut out of the original number of 225 students?
Did the allocation end up as:
A. savings to taxpayers
B. reabsorbed into the State Department of Education budget
C. reallocated to other charter schools
Answer: C.
On August 11, 2014, the Connecticut Department of Education, “surveyed existing charter schools to assess interest in additional seats for the 2014-15 school year from the balance of 105 seats.” A number of charter schools answered the call and requested an increase in student enrollment.
In a telephone conference/meeting on August 21, 2014, the CT State Board of Education approved an expanded enrollment for these charter schools. Six state charter schools were approved to expand by a combined 99 students and one local charter was approved to expand by 1 additional student. Specifically, the CT State Board of Education approved the requests to enroll additional students for ’14-’15 at New Beginnings, Highville, Achievement First Bridgeport, Odyssey, Great Oaks, and Path Academy (OPP) state charter schools, and at Elm City Montessori, a local charter school.
(Note: According to the 8/21 meeting agenda posted in advance, the public was allowed to listen to the teleconference and the vote on the resolution through a speaker phone on the third floor of the CT SDE building.)
Source: Connecticut State Board of Education, 2014.
The chart below summarizes the enrollment changes at state charter schools for 2013-14 and the revised, approved enrollment for 2014-15 for each existing and new charter school. This chart combines enrollment information from the June and August resolutions from the State Board of Education.
You can put your cursor over each bar to see the change in enrollment from one year to the next. In the parentheses, I have indicated which schools’ enrollment have been revised and which charter management corporation they are, or were, affiliated with such as an (AF) for Achievement First.
The approved charter school enrollment for the 2014-15 school year now stands at 8,177 students, which is 5 students fewer than the 8,183 students originally planned in June. The approved enrollment is an increase of 1,045 students in Connecticut’s state charter schools from ’14 to ’15. This is the result of increased enrollment at existing charter schools and the creation of new charter schools. This increase in charter enrollment is one of the largest increases in the last decade.