Charter Schools are supposed to be open to all Montgomery County students, countywide. The only seats that are to be set aside are for founders children, or for siblings of students. A special set aside would violate the terms of the Charter. Crossway already tried asking the State Board of Education for a special exception and the State Board said "no" based on Maryland law.
"Because the charter school law does not authorize a waiver of the open enrollment requirement for students whose parents reside at the Crossway housing facilities, we deny the waiver request." State Board OpinionThe Charter School has also told the Planning Board that no MCPS school buses will be used to transport students.
The applicant has indicated that public charter school students will not be bused...(page 7 of Planning Board memo)
How can a countywide school operate without school buses? A transportation plan was part of the application. Is this a (not so) subtle way of discouraging students from other parts of the county from applying for this public school?
20120621_PublicCharterSchoolFinalStaffReport_000
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i am 100% for charter schools, but i think it was a mistake to grant a charter to this organization that has a conflict of interest. their initial application wanted a great deal of the seats to go straight to the population they already serve as well as other low income children. it's obvious that they are not able to separate themselves from that idea. it already baffles me that they are accepting 3 and 4 year olds into their charter school with MCPS funds, as MCPS doesn't fund preschool for the general population - funding starts at kindergarten for children who are 5 years old. I wish this charter school the best of luck, but they need to follow rules and regs.
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