By Amanda McGregor
STAFF WRITER
—
SALEM — Another proposed charter school is looking to teach at-risk teenagers from Salem.
Richard Milburn Academy submitted a prospectus to open a charter high school that would serve students from Salem and Lynn — marking the third proposed charter high school for Salem students.
It joins the Salem School Department — which has submitted a prospectus to run a downtown Salem Community Charter School, to serve about 100 dropouts and students at risk of dropping out — and Road to Success Charter High School, a proposed school that would serve up to 320 at-risk students from Salem and Lynn (the group applied for a charter last year that was not granted).
The Milburn Schools organization operates 13 charter schools in Texas and Florida, according to its Web site, which touts small environments that offer individualized attention.
"Most of our students have come from high schools of 3,000 to 5,000 students where they felt anonymous, overwhelmed, and lost" reads the Web site, http://milburnschools.org. "As their frustration with school grew and their performance declined, often the result was to simply drop out."
Salem already has one charter school, Salem Academy, which opened in 2004 and enrolls over 300 students in grades six through 12.
Salem High School enrolled 1,229 students last year.
It appears the Milburn Schools are operated by a company called Non-Public Educational Services, Inc., which lists its corporate office address at Shetland Park in Salem.
"There are now three contestants, if you will, for the right to open a ... charter school," Superintendent William Cameron said to the School Committee last night, "so we'll see where this goes."
In addition to the three proposed charter high schools, Lynn Preparatory Charter School, a proposed K-8 program, has submitted a prospectus to open and serve 324 students from Salem and Lynn.
That school applied during the last charter school application cycle, but Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester pulled his recommendation for the school because its founders were also the co-founders of the Hathaway School, private K-6 school in Swampscott that would have closed if the Lynn charter was granted.
"State law prohibits the conversion of a private school to a publicly funded charter school," read a February press release from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
In all, 42 groups submitted prospectuses to the state this cycle looking for approval for new charter schools, which are independent, publicly funded schools that operate under five-year charters granted by the state Board of Education.
By mid-September, the state will invite some of those groups to submit a full application, due Nov. 1. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will vote to award new charters in February.
Staff writer Amanda McGregor can be reached at amcgregor@salemnews.com.
Charter School profiles
The state has received prospectuses from the following proposed charter schools to serve Salem students:
Richard Milburn Academy — which would serve up to 250 high school students from Salem and Lynn
Road to Success Charter High School — up to 320 students in high school from Salem and Lynn
Salem Community Charter School (a Horace Mann Charter School operated by the Salem Public Schools) — up to 100 high school students from Salem
Lynn Preparatory Charter School — up to 324 students in grades K-8
