Charter Schools’ Impressive Track Record Ignored by Mamdani

NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani sidesteps charter school leaders’ meeting request

Has New York City’s incoming mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, just given a cold shoulder to the folks educating over 150,000 kids in charter schools?

Despite a formal plea from 19 charter school leaders to sit down and hash out ways to support needy students and tackle affordability, Mamdani has yet to even acknowledge their request, leaving these educators in limbo as they seek collaboration with his administration, as the New York Post reports.

On Dec. 1, these leaders sent a written invitation proposing a meeting on Dec. 12 at Ember Charter School for Mindful Education. So far, it’s been crickets from the mayor-elect’s camp.

Let’s lay out the numbers: over 150,000 students attend 285 charter schools across the five boroughs, making up one in six publicly funded students in the city.

In the 2024-25 school year, charter students outperformed their traditional public school peers on state exams, with 67.5% proficient in English Language Arts and 68.6% in math, compared to 56.3% and 56.9%, respectively. In The Bronx, schools like Success Academy and Zeta posted pass rates up to 25 points higher than nearby district schools.

Success Academy also nabbed second place in ELA with 92%, just a hair behind a wealthy suburban district. Yet, despite these achievements, Mamdani didn’t include a single charter sector voice on his transition Committee on Youth & Education, one of 17 teams with 400 members.

Read more about the Communist

Academy of Positive Learning

Out of time: Lake Worth Beach charter school students in portable classrooms won’t return

The City of Lake Worth bent over backwards to accommodate charter school Academy of Positive Learning on Dixie Highway. They could not or did not comply with the City's demand regarding the removal of the portable classroom units. In fact, they dragged it on for a year past the deadline.

City Manager Michael Bornstein said, “The parents need to go to the board of directors and the principal and say, ‘why haven’t you been able to raise the money to fix this school?’” he said. “It’s not fair to ask Lake Worth to bear this burden.”

I agree with the city manager. This school has a lot to learn about contracts and deadlines. That's a positive.

Read about it...

Charter School might get sued

Outside portable classrooms at charter school in Lake Worth Beach in controversy

The City of Lake Worth gave the charter school, Academy for Positive Learning, 5 years to get rid of the portable units. They haven't. In fact, they have gone over the deadline by one year. City Manager Bornstein says, "enough is enough. Remove them or we're taking you to court. "

Read about it...

Academy for Positive Learning

Charter school principal says she's moving because of medical marijuana dispensary

If you have to come up with a reason I would suppose that is as good as any. But we all know that the County will not be giving any money to Charter Schools...they won’t get the $20 million from the tax hike OK’d by voters.

"The Senate on Thursday removed the charter school issue from the tax bill. That led to negotiations to limit the charter school proposal to future referendums. The end product focused on referendums that will be held after July 1 and would require counties to negotiate with charter schools the distribution of approved tax dollars." [PBPost]

Read about it... and the Academy of Positive Learning on North Dixie Highway in Lake Worth that is located directly across the street from a marijuana dispensary.

Andrew Gillum--The Smooth talking candidate

What Andrew Gillum Really Thinks about School Choice

That's all he has--a smooth talking actor. Sometimes, and in politics, it seems we get veiled truths all of the time. It is what a candidate doesn't say that one has to discern in order to distinguish between the candidates.

Remember when Gillum went after DeSantis about receiving $200,000 from Betsy deVos? Well, he received "nearly 850,000 from the same group that sued Step Up For Students, the organization that administers scholarships to low-income families and won the support of the National Education Association, in part, because he opposes charter schools."

Read this article... to find out the truth--on charter schools and its children (about 12% of the kids in Florida)---that they "receive state funds based on how many students they teach, just like Every. Other. Public. School."

Medical marijuana dispensary and now a medical marijuana doctor's office right near Charter School. People are fuming.

New developments about a medical marijuana dispensary set to open steps from a charter school.

Now a medical marijuana doctor is opening an office on the same block, fueling fears of crime and danger for children.  Everyone in Lake Worth should be concerned.

Look to the city commission to give some plausible explanation.

Read about it...

Fix up your mess, Commissioners

Every now and then it happens...I agree with the PB Post editorial.

"Lake Worth’s elected officials must get off the sidelines and clean up this mess they created. The city can’t be seen as failing to place a high enough priority on public school education. And despite the benefits of medical marijuana, that is likely where this image fiasco is headed."

Read more...about the medical marijuana dispensary locating across the street from the Academy of Positive Learning.

Jeff Clemens - SB 254

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Clemens is attempting to handicap future Charter Schools.  His bill will make it even more difficult for charter schools to obtain approval in Florida. The applicant would have to demonstrate that the charter school meets a specific instructional need or a need for additional educational facilities.

SB 254: Charter Schools

GENERAL BILL by Clemens

Charter Schools; Requiring a charter school to demonstrate it meets certain needs that the local school district does not or is unable to provide to students in that district in order to obtain approval, etc.
Effective Date: 7/1/2015
Last Action: 1/7/2015 Senate - Filed
Location: Filed
Bill Text: Web Page | PDF

Clemens files more bills than a bill collector.

Florida kids are more stupid

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The “Quality Counts” report for 2015 placed Florida at No. 28 among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, a significant drop from previous years’ rankings. The Sunshine State earned a “C” ranking in this year’s report, putting it on par with the national average in the overall rankings.

Read about it... and then ask Jeff Clemens to support Charter Schools.

Rick Scott's budget aims to increase education spending on K-12 by more than $1 billion.

School Board Election on August 26 - Tom Sutterfield District 4

Today, Tom Sutterfield of Boynton Beach got the endorsement from the Palm Beach Post for District 4 School Board. Tom says, "I will bring over a decade of school budgetary experience, knowledge of school operations and expansion, and a proven track record of working with parents, teachers, administrators and staff to ensure all education and safety standards for our children remain on the forefront.  I would be honored to serve as your next School Board member for District 4.”

It is a known fact that we have serious educational issues and challenges in Palm Beach County as shown in the FCAT stats below. If you can't read, you can't write and 2 + 2 does not equal 5. One woman with whom I spoke  is planning on opening a charter school in Lake Worth, She said, "I don't have any hope of things getting better with schools in Palm Beach County unless he and a few others like him get elected."

A failing grade is counted as scoring a 1 or 2. A passing grade is 3, 4 or 5 (the best).

READING--3rd grade
45% failing at North Grade Elementary
71% failing at Barton Elementary
75% failing at South Grade Elementary
76% failing at Highland Elementary

MATH--3rd grade
35% failing at North Grade Elementary
60% failing at Barton Elementary
72% failing at South Grade Elementary
59% failing at Highland elementary

Reading--4th grade
47% failing at North Grade Elementary
68% failing at Barton Elementary
64% failing at South Grade Elementary
71% failing at Highland Elementary

Math--4th Grade
39% failing at North Grade Elementary
39% failing at Barton Elementary
54% failing at South Grade Elementary
46% failing at Highland Elementary

Reading--8th Grade
61% failing at Lake Worth Middle School

Math--8th Grade
67% failing at Lake Worth Middle School

Reading--10th Grade
74% failing at Lake Worth Community High School

Source:  http://fcat.fldoe.org/mediapacket/2014/default.asp
scroll down to FCAT 2.0.

Point of View - Charter Schools

Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post April 16, 2014
Opinion Editorial by Margaret Menge, Lake Worth

Get the Facts before Assessing Charters

The letter in Sunday’s Palm Beach Post (“Public schools at real disadvantage”) was wrong on many counts.

First, contrary to the letter-writer’s statement that “charter schools do not require teachers to be certified,” the Florida Department of Education’s website clearly states: “Teachers employed by or under contract to a charter school are required to be certified (Ch. 1012, F.S.).” A few states allow people who aren’t certified to teach in charter schools — those with at least two years of experience teaching in the Teach for America program, for example, or college-level teaching experience, or men and women with exceptional military, business or artistic experience. In Florida, however, you must have a teaching certificate to teach in a charter school.

Second, the letter-writer says that charter schools can refuse to accept handicapped students. No, they can’t. Charter schools, like all public schools, must make a “free and appropriate public education” available to all students with disabilities per the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Charter schools cannot, by law, refuse to serve students with disabilities. Many charter schools find that they are not equipped to serve severely handicapped students, and yes, the district schools must then educate them. But this is a very small fraction of the student population.

Third, the letter-writer says that “not all charter schools have to administer state-required tests.” False. If you look up FCAT scores for the past few years you’ll see them listed for all charter schools in Palm Beach County. The only charter school students who don’t take state assessments are those who have very limited English and so take the CELLA test instead — as is the case in regular district schools — and those students with very serious disabilities, who would not be taking the state assessment whether they attend a charter school or a regular public school.

Charter schools face enormous challenges. New charter schools must raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to lease buildings and renovate them. And founders usually contribute hundreds of hours of volunteer labor to plan and open schools. Also, charter schools have to pay an administrative fee to the school district every year. For a small charter school opening with just 100 students, this fee amounts to about $40,000. One advantage charter schools do have is the ability to replace bad teachers, something that is almost impossible to do in regular district schools when teachers have tenure.

MARGARET MENGE
LAKE WORTH

New Charter School Planned for Lake Worth

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The Lake Worth Classical Academy, a small, community-focused, academically rigorous charter school, will open in the downtown Lake Worth area in August of 2015 with grades K-3.

The school will use phonics to teach reading -- not a sprinkling of phonics, but explicit phonics, proven to teach children to read quickly and well.

It will be a Great Books school, using no textbooks, only the best books available in the English language for each grade.

As a classical school, students will study human history as a great story, starting from the beginning with Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and China, and continuing through to our modern era.

All children will study French beginning in first grade, and Latin beginning in fourth grade.

The school will be one of the few in South Florida with a strings program that begins at the elementary level, with all students playing either violin, viola or cello beginning in fourth grade.

The Lake Worth Classical Academy will be modeled on the Great Hearts Academies of Arizona, where third grade reading scores on the state assessment last year were 21 points higher than the state average (87 percent meeting or exceeding expectations, versus 66 percent for all Arizona third graders).

The average 2013 SAT scores for Great Hearts Academies were all over 1800, compared to an average SAT score nationwide of about 1500. At Lake Worth High School, in comparison, the average 2013 SAT score was under 1200. Great Hearts graduates are also attending some of the top universities and colleges in America, including several Ivy League schools.

The founders of the Lake Worth Classical Academy are local parents who want a better education for their children than can be found at Lake Worth's regular public schools.

A website has been established at www.LakeWorthClassical.org, with more information about the school. A first informational meeting will be held in the summer of 2014.

School in Lake Worth on Lockdown

Read about schools on Barton Avenue. Someone was waving a gun.

Quote of the Day - Jeff Clemens

“If those monies are going to charter schools that are serving a completely different need than public schools then that is a good thing. (But) if they are essentially doing the same thing as public schools are, I find that to be a waste of taxpayers’ dollars. I want to make sure that we are focusing on meeting additional needs rather than doing the same thing.”

~ Fl Sen Jeff Clemens

Senator Clemens wants to tighten charter school focus with Senate bill SB 452 which has yet to be assigned to any committees. Clemens said if it fails to gain any traction he will try to amend the language onto a bill addressing charter school accountability. We agree with him on this one.

Academy for Positive Learning

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Academy for Positive Learning
This fence panel has been missing for months

I don't care if they put skirting up and tie them down to withstand the worst of God's wrath, they are still portables and look terrible on Dixie Highway.

Back on May 7, the Appearance Criteria was on the agenda for this charter school. The vast majority of the people who spoke did not want these temporary structures to remain as "permanent" no matter what the school did to them. The school had agreed to build permanent structures within 16 months. First they had the money and then they didn't. They say that they can't fulfill  the agreement and want our city to give them another break--trailers on Dixie Highway. The item was tabled until the next meeting.

On May 21, the item was on the agenda again and the School had its attorneys  at the meeting. The school got some support from a few parents. It was stated that new information had come forward but no information was relayed to the public. It was tabled once again. What's going on? Will we ever know or will we have to bend over and take it? Perhaps we wait for that first hurricane--there's a 48% chance that a hurricane will hit Florida this year. 

The Academy of "Negative' Learning

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Tonight, portable units at the Charter school come back on the agenda--

Back in June 2011, the Planning & Zoning board approved the Site Plan to allow a Charter School at 1200 N.  Dixie Highway. The vote was 5 to 2.  Those who dissented, Chair Lynda Mahoney and board member David  Brodie, said it was not in keeping with the city's Master Plan or what its vision was/is for the Dixie Corridor. Those board members who did approve, told the school that portables, are not traditionally allowed in the HIC zoning district but would be allowed for 16 months only and then they had to erect permanent buildings.

There were ten Conditions of Approval and William Waters, Community Development Director, informed them in writing to remind them of the agreement. I doubt if many of them have been satisfied.

Now months after the deadline to build permanent buildings and remove the portables, the Academy for Positive Learning  became the school of negative learning for trying to pull a fast one on the City of Lake Worth--it says that if it installs skirting around the bottom of the portable units and tie them down it will be, voila, permanent! All along they knew this was not acceptable by the entire former Planning & Zoning board at the time and not acceptable by the City of Lake Worth and against  the Conditions of Approval. But here's the good part:  And on April 13, 2013, the newly politically appointed Planning & Zoning Board consisting of Rinaldi,  Rice, Sherwin, Parrilla and Zacks approved the school's charade and total lack of compliance and granted  their wish.

Recommendation by Lake Worth's Building Official:

"It is strongly recommended that no application, or variance, or exception be entertained for the Academy of Positive Learning at 1200 North Dixie Highway due to Life-Safety requirements, safety, health and general welfare concerns for children who currently are enrolled azt this educational facility.  it is further recommended that the relocatable/portable.modular classrooms now in use b removed from the property at 1200 North Dixie highway prior to the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.

Bottom line--When the city grants a special exception(s) the applicant must comply with all the conditions. To do otherwise, is disrespectful at best. We cannot continue to give exceptions to businesses or residents who constantly believe they are playing some sort of game and are out to win by hook or by crook. We can only hope that they are teaching their students to obey the rules even if they want to change them.