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News & Information
Propel's success costs local school districts, which pay most of bill
Charter school group has grown to 1,500 students in six years
Posted April 26, 2009
By Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday, April 19, 2009
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09109/963996-298.stm
In fall 2003, the first Propel charter school opened with just 173 elementary students in the basement of the former Homestead Hospital building.
Six years later, the Propel organization has grown to the size of a small school district with five schools, an enrollment of 1,500, a staff of 200, an annual budget of $19 million and an administrative office on the South Side.
Its steady growth can be attributed to the program's success in improving the achievement of low-income and minority students and providing what parents perceive as a small, friendly and safe environment.
Its success has come at a cost to local school districts, which foot much of the bill.
For parents Connie and Marc Tinsley, of Turtle Creek, transferring their daughter, Monica, from Wilkins Primary School in the Woodland Hills School District to the new Propel East charter school in Turtle Creek four years ago was a "gigantic leap of faith," Mrs. Tinsley said.
"But we wanted to move in a direction where we thought there would be a more controlled environment. It has turned out to be everything we hoped it would be," she said.
Monica is now in fifth grade at Propel East and her brother, Kevin, is in third grade. They are among 349 students at the school, which has a waiting list of about 500 would-be students.
Parents don't pay tuition for any charter schools, which are public schools. Local districts this school year will pay about $17.4 million of the $19 million Propel budget -- based on a per-student fee set by the state -- although the state later will reimburse districts about a third of the cost.
Propel schools account for the bulk of charter school costs for the Duquesne, Woodland Hills, Steel Valley, Sto-Rox and Mc-Keesport districts, all of which have Propel schools within or near their communities.
Woodland Hills' costs are highest -- about $4.4 million this school year for 300 to 350 students.
Others whose payments to Propel are expected to top $1 million this year include: Steel Valley, 158 students, $1.74 million; McKeesport Area, 216 students, $1.7 million; and Sto-Rox, 101 students, $1.1 million.
To date, Pittsburgh Public Schools, with 286 Propel students, has paid $3.5 million, and Duquesne, with 94 students, has paid $795,833.
David Seropian, business manager of the McKeesport Area School District, said, "I've identified charter school tuition as our biggest financial issue."
Sto-Rox business manager Charles Lanna, said, "We're a school district that can't afford it. But it's going to continue. We can't do this for the next 10 to 15 years or we are not going to survive."
Propel founder and Executive Director Jeremy Resnick, a former Pittsburgh Public Schools teacher, started and directed the Charter Schools Project at Duquesne University. He also was a co-founder of Northside Urban Pathways Charter School, which serves grades 6-12 Downtown, before founding Propel.
Mr. Resnick doesn't view his schools as competing with local school districts. In fact, he said, he'd like for his staff to collaborate more with other public schools in the area to improve education for all students.
That's happened in some instances where staff members from other local schools have visited and observed Propel schools. But none of the visitors has come from a district from which Propel draws students, Mr. Resnick said.
Propel's schools comprise four elementaries: Propel Homestead; Propel McKeesport; Propel East in Turtle Creek; and Propel Montour in Kennedy. In addition, Propel opened its Andrew Street High School in Munhall in August.
The closest similar network is Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia. There are similar networks in California and New York, and others are opening schools throughout the country.
Propel is the only charter school system in the region to operate more than one school. It also has the only brick-and-mortar charter schools in suburban Allegheny County, with the exception of Spectrum Charter School in Monroeville, which was founded to serve autistic students.
Students at Propel schools wear uniforms, attend school from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day and attend 190 days a year -- 10 more than traditional public schools. Teachers attend 10 days of in-service training each year before classes start.
Inside classrooms, teachers work with students in small groups in an attempt to meet the individual academic needs and pace of each student.
Special education students are educated in the same classrooms as other students, with the special education teacher and aides working alongside the grade-level teacher.
Propel officials said its students consistently outperform students in the districts from which they came. That includes its students from disadvantaged and minority groups, which tend not to score well on the state's standardized assessments.
For example, among students from poor families, those from the Duquesne City School District perform 35 percentage points higher in average combined reading and math achievement in kindergarten through grade 8 at Propel than similar students in their home district.
Woodland Hills students from poor families perform 16 percentage points better at Propel, Pittsburgh students perform 10 percentage points better and Sto-Rox students perform 18 percentage points better than those in their home districts, according to Propel figures.
Propel officials also said the school has the highest level of academic achievement among the 20 districts statewide in which more than two-thirds of students are from low-income families. Systemwide, 79 percent of Propel's students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.
Last month, Propel Mc-Keesport, which has 350 students in grades K-7, was one of 21 charter schools nationwide honored for their ability to increase student achievement by New Leaders for New Schools, a na-tional nonprofit organization that focuses on school achievement in urban environments.
The award includes $70,000 for the Propel staff and a commitment to share its most effective practices with other educators.
Propel's success has led to its sustained support from the local foundation community, including the R.K. Mellon Foundation, Heinz Endowments and the Grable Foundation.
"I've been able to report back to my board that [Propel has] been very accountable and really achieved excellence with a difficult student population and they've had success in replicating that program," said Chip Burke, chairman of the Grable Foundation.
The Grable Foundation's money helped to found Propel, and over the years the foundation has donated $660,000 in three separate grants.
Though officials of local public schools that send students to Propel aren't asking to tour the schools, some are reacting by attempting to improve district programs in hopes of luring students back or stopping others from leaving for Propel, cyber and other charter schools.
Mr. Seropian said McKeesport Area has opened its own cyber school for students looking for an alternative and has sent out promotional mailings to district families touting the high points of the district's schools.
Steel Valley Superintendent William Kinavey said through a spokeswoman that the district has been updating facilities and technology and revamping curriculum.
In addition, Spanish will be offered next year in kindergarten, and the district is adding a $3 million expansion to Barrett Elementary in Homestead, with a donation from district benefactor William Campbell, chairman of Intuit Inc.
Woodland Hills plans to open the Woodland Hills Academy in the 2009-10 school year in a closed district building that Propel had proposed using for a second school in the district.
The academy will serve grades K-6, operate a longer school day and longer school year, will focus on foreign language and may require students to wear uniforms.
Superintendent Walter Calinger said he is confident the district will be able to produce results similar to Propel's at the academy. He said one advantage that Propel has over large public school systems is a group of parents who are engaged in their children's education.
Propel hasn't given up on trying to put a second charter school in the Woodland Hills district.
After the school board rejected its application last fall, Propel gathered signatures to file an appeal with the state Charter School Appeal Board and plans to file the appeal soon.
If the charter is granted, Propel is looking to open the second school, which would serve grades K-12, on the site of the former Builder's Square in Braddock Hills.
Dr. Calinger said if another Propel school is opened within his district, he expects it will cost the district another $3 million a year in tuition.
Propel has never lost a legal battle. It has had to go to the state appeal board to open every school except the high school, which Steel Valley approved without a fight. For Homestead, McKeesport and Montour, it had to go one additional step to Commonwealth Court. Propel officials still hope to open several more schools, which they and parents said provide families a choice.
"We are really relieved that we have the opportunity," said Camille Smith, of Duquesne, who has five children at Propel Homestead.
She said Propel teachers work in small-group settings with students and get to know them personally.
"There are so many learning differences, and they adapt to all of them. There is so much equipment and so many learning tools."
Because the Smiths live in a school district that does not provide busing, they must transport their children to the Homestead school each day.
"Regardless of what we have to go through to get them there, it's worth it," she said.
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