Applications for new charter schools announcedDate: 8/19/2016 GREATER SPRINGFIELD – The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has announced the applications for new or expanded charter schools, several of which would have an impact in Springfield, Holyoke Agawam, Westfield and Chicopee.
A new school, the Collegiate Charter School of the Pioneer Valley would serve Springfield and Chicopee and would be a K through 12 school with a maximum enrollment of 870 students with its first year, if approved, would open in 2018.
The Hampden Charter School of Science, currently operating in Chicopee, has given DESE a letter of intent to open an additional school to serve students in Holyoke, Westfield and Agawam. That new school would be grades 6 through 12 with a maximum enrollment of 560 and open in 2017.
The Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School, which serves Hampden, Hampshire and franklin counties, has applied to increase its maximum enrollment by 560 students.
Veritas Prep Charter School in Springfield has applied to increase its maximum enrollment by 540 students.
DESE will decide by mid-September, which schools will be invited to submit a full proposal and the final applications will be due by Nov. 1.
DESE Commissioner Mitchell Chester will then decide which finalists to recommend to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for consideration in February 2017.
“Massachusetts has some of the strongest charter schools in the nation, and I am pleased that groups continue to be interested in opening and expanding schools here,” Chester said. “My agency will review these proposals carefully before deciding which ones should proceed to the next step.”
When asked by Reminder Publications how these applications for new schools and expansions would be affected by the ballot question on charter schools, Jacqueline Reis, the media relations coordinator for DESE, said, “If every single application and expansion request listed here were found to be of high enough quality for Board approval (which would be very rare), the current net school spending cap would mean that the Board would have to limit the expansion seats granted in Boston to 225 and the number of seats they could award in Springfield, where there is an application for a new school and two expansion requests, to 543 … In other words, if voters approve the charter school ballot question in November, the Board could (depending on the quality of the applications) have the opportunity early next year to approve more charter school seats in Boston and Springfield than they would have been able to do otherwise. The ballot question would not have an immediate impact on the other communities in this year's charter cycle.”
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