| Posted on Fri, Jan. 16, 2004 |   |
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State OKs 3 charter schools
Two will be in Camden. One is to open in the fall and the other, focusing on arts, in 2005-06. Inquirer Staff Writer New Jersey Education Commissioner William Librera yesterday approved applications to form three charter schools, including two in Camden. Nine groups had applied in July. Librera rejected three yesterday, and three were disqualified earlier for incomplete applications, state education officials said. Librera approved the DUE (Distinction in Urban Education) Season Charter School in Camden, which would open for the 2005-06 school year with about 215 first, second and fifth graders. School officials plan eventually to enroll as many as 500 children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Organizers said the school would emphasize dance, music and drama, and could feed the city's Creative Arts High School. Also approved was the Freedom Academy Charter School in Camden, which would begin operating next school year. It would enroll about 80 fifth graders initially and expand in four years to 320 students in grades five through eight. Camden - South Jersey's largest school district, with 18,500 students - has three charter schools with nearly 1,000 students altogether. The third approved application was for a school in Irvington, Essex County. Charter schools are publicly funded but operate independently of local school boards. They are given greater flexibility in curriculum and instruction. New Jersey has 48 charter schools, with nearly 14,000 students in prekindergarten through grade 12. Since the first round of applications in 1996, the state has received 213 and approved about 25 percent. |
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