Spirit of Knowledge deliberated; State hosts hearing for charter school.

PositionLOCAL NEWS

Byline: Jacqueline Reis

WORCESTER - In a format that resembled a debate, proponents and opponents of a proposed charter school faced off at the Worcester Public Library last night for a state-run hearing on the proposal's merits.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will decide in February whether to grant a charter to the proposed Spirit of Knowledge Academy Charter School, which would serve 585 students from Worcester, Oxford and Leicester in Grades 6 through 12 and focus on math, the sciences and the humanities. If they agree, it would be the city's third charter school, its first addition since Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School opened in 1998.

Five other proposals have failed. The most recent, in 2005, met with the same kind of opposition the SOKA proposal faced last night: a lineup of opponents, mostly from the Worcester public schools, who filled up as many of the three-minute speaking slots as they could. If SOKA opens, the public school system could lose students and eventually money to the new school. This year, the school district will see almost 2,000 of its students attend charter schools, taking with them $15,346,931.

Unlike the 2005 hearing on the proposed Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School, last night's SOKA proponents came with their own large lineup and an armful of experience. Many of the founders are affiliated with the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlboro, which opened in 2005 after its own series of contentious hearings. Marc D. Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, praised the SOKA proposal as "taking the charter school movement in Massachusetts to the next stage" by replicating a successful model.

Worcester school representatives' critiques included SOKA's finances, its special education staffing and its requirement that some students take sixth grade twice without stating the criteria students would have to meet.

The opposition also included parents, students and graduates, several of whom said Worcester didn't need a math and science school, because it already has strong programs. Ken Ha, father of three Worcester...

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