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President's Message
It is with great pride that I welcome you to the next generation of the PCCS website. In the last year, PCCS has made great strides in providing enhanced services and support to our membership, and this website is designed to complement those new additions.
As President of PCCS and the founding CEO of Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Philadelphia, I have had the opportunity to meet so many people involved in the charter school movement. This experience has taught me that this movement has been so successful because there are so many different people - parents, business and community leaders, educators and philanthropists - who are working together with a common goal - a better life for children through education.
Charter schools are grabbing headlines regularly because they are full of good news about student success. Yet, more than 26,000 children remain on waiting lists for charter schools in Pennsylvania. Clearly there is much more we need to do.
We need to work harder at sharing our good news and encouraging business, community, and education leaders to join our ranks and establish a school. We need to work harder at developing our relationship with legislators so they understand the essential value of choice that public charter schools offer parents, particularly in underserved communities. We need to work harder at providing support to new and existing schools so they can work towards the goal of providing an exceptional education.
With that in mind, PCCS recently hosted a workshop on how to start a charter school that was attended by more than 30 community leaders. I hope that soon I will see these future school leaders enjoying an opening day and filling that gap in demand that exists. PCCS continues to provide advocacy services, and recently was on hand for legislative hearings regarding changes to the charter school law regarding cyber education. Finally, in response to so many requests for technical support for schools, PCCS is developing a resource center that will connect our members with experts in the education community at a reasonable cost.
Despite the flurry of activity, PCCS remains an organization that listens to our members. Please always feel free to call any board or staff member if you have a question or concern.
Lawrence Jones, President
Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools
CEO, Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School
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