Crossway Community's Proposed Charter School

Last summer,in July 2010, I visited the Crossway Community in Kensington, MD. Prior to the Board of Education’s rejection of Crossway’s application for a charter school, I was unfamiliar with their work. A representative from Crossway took me on a tour of their spacious facility, and explained their existing program components: a residential program for young mothers seeking to turn their lives around, a Montessori preschool program that serves their children as well as children from the community, and a program to bring cultural and civic events to their facility, in order to foster intergenerational learning.

Crossway applied to form a charter school serving young, elementary age children, using a Montessori methodology. The BOE rejected their application, calling it "not ready for prime time." But the classrooms I visited were spacious, structured, and organized. The facility is large enough to accommodate increased numbers of children. My tour guide explained that children who originally may have come from a chaotic home environment were found to thrive in the order, exploration, and skills development inherent in the Montessori program. There was even an outdoor vegetable garden, where the children assist in growing tomatoes and peppers.

I walked away saddened that Shirley Brandman, Pat O'Neill, Mike Durso, Judy Docca, and the other Board members voted to deny the children of Montgomery County the chance to participate in this type of rich educational experience. It did not escape my notice that Crossway was a short distance away from Oakland Terrace Elementary School: a school that is so overcrowded that MCPS is sending kindergarten children to the basement of a middle school for their education. Families in Montgomery County who believe their children need a nurturing, developmentally based school program deserve the opportunity to choose this educational alternative.

Crossway Community's second charter school application is up for another MCPS review on May 23. Is the MCPS review team actually visiting Crossways? If not, why not? And as long as Josh Starr is in town, he should make a visit as well.