How should I get started?
1. Call FOCUS.
We offer a comprehensive Charter School Startup Program, including:
- an introductory seminar
- an intensive workshop program
- the FOCUS Guide to Starting a Charter School in the District of Columbia
- a library of successful charter petitions and other resources,
- access to local experts who can help you find a school building, develop a special education program, and create accountability and business plans
- review of application drafts.
2. Assemble a founding group.
Perhaps nothing is more critical to the success of a charter school than the capability and drive of its founding group, which will determine the school’s mission and philosophy, translate that vision into a plan for a school, and help get the school open on time. Members of this group will work together to write the petition and must have the time and commitment to do so.
Ideally, your founding group should include people who have expertise in each of the following areas: business, real estate, law, fundraising, community activism, and education at the grade level(s) your school plans to offer. When searching for someone with an appropriate education background, remember that the chartering board consider preschool to be different from elementary school, and middle school to be different from high school.
The chartering board strongly believes that, in addition to its other characteristics, the founding group should be representative of the racial and ethnic diversity of the District of Columbia, and that at least some of its members should have experience working with the kinds of children to be served by the school. This is especially important because many if not most of the founding members will go on to serve on the school’s Board of Trustees.
Those from outside the D.C. area who wish to start charter schools in D.C., such as educational management organizations, must recruit local people to comprise the founding group and, later, the board of trustees. Petitions from outside groups are regularly denied chartering authorities for lack of sufficient local leadership.
3. Begin to articulate the school’s daily activities and mission.
- Structure of the School Day
While this section is actually the last of the Education portion of the petition, we at FOCUS strongly recommend that you consider it first – even before you complete a draft of your mission statement and philosophy. The very abstract concept of establishing a school becomes much more tangible if you envision how the myriad decisions you will make directly impact the day-to-day lives of your potential students and teachers. Consider having the founding members answer the following questions to help the group delineate its priorities regarding the structure of the school day:- How old are your students?
- What subjects (if any) do you believe are crucial for them to study every single day?
- What subjects (if any) do you believe are important but need not be studied each day?
- What is the average length of time students in these grades can be expected to be attentive in a classroom?
- Will every period each day be the same length, or will there be some shorter periods and some block periods?
- How will you build in daily “down-time” for both your students (recess, breaks) and your teachers (planning periods, breaks)?
- Should certain groups of teachers and/or staff have common planning/break times?
- When and how will the students arrive at school?
- Will you provide before-care?
- Will you provide breakfast and/or lunch for your any of your students?
- When will the students leave for the day?
- Will you provide after-care and/or extra-curricular activities for any of them?
- Who will staff these before-school and/or after-school programs?
- Mission
Aside from a school’s name, its mission is the most succinct and informative articulation of a school’s reason for existence. Not only will the mission serve as the guideline for all current and future decisions regarding curriculum, staffing, instruction, governance, and spending, but it will also act as a recruitment tool. In the early stages of charter school development, when not all key pieces are in place, outsiders will likely have only the mission to help them understand what the school will ultimately embody. With this one statement, potential founders, board members, and staff must be able to decide if the school reflects their own educational values and seeks to achieve a like-minded vision.
This is a tall order for one sentence, but many founding group members find that the exercise of developing the mission enables them to better understand how they view the school and allows them to more clearly see the vision of their colleagues.
FOCUS staff will be happy to help you with these challenges and the many more to come as you make your way through the application process. Please call us at 202/387-0405 to set up an appointment.
