Last Updated on January 9, 2024, 11:26 PM | Published: January 9, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY — A new charter elementary school focused on 21st century learning has been approved in northeast Oklahoma City, the second new charter authorized in the city in recent months.
The Oklahoma City Board of Education voted 6-1 on Monday in favor of opening Rise STEAM Academy.
The board rejected two other proposed charter schools looking to open in the historically Black northeast side of Oklahoma City Public Schools, P3 Urban Montessori and Willard C. Pitts Academy. Founders of the rejected schools say they will seek approval from the state.
Charter schools must have a local school district, a college or university, or a state agency authorize them before they can begin to operate. They are free public schools that often have a specific enrollment zone and innovative teaching methods.
The Oklahoma City board had denied the three schools on Nov. 27 but encouraged their charter organizers to reapply.
In that same November meeting, the board approved Oklahoma Montessori Initiative, a charter elementary school planning to open in 2025 in northwest Oklahoma City.
Rise STEAM Academy
After the initial rejection, Rise STEAM Academy submitted more information, particularly about its budget plans and future location, that helped make the second board vote a success, said Carma Barlow, the school’s lead founder. The updated application contained a letter of commitment from Avery Chapel AME, which offered to lease a space to the school.
Rise STEAM Academy plans to open in 2025 with a focus on communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity — all “critical needs of the 21st century workforce,” according to its application.
It will incorporate science, technology, engineering, arts and math in the core curriculum for every subject, said Barlow, a charter school principal from Santa Fe South Schools.
Barlow said the STEAM academy could give northeast Oklahoma City parents a high-quality alternative to the elementary schools in their neighborhoods.
“I think we are providing another option in an area that historically has not had options,” Barlow said.
Different votes, different ideas
The only school board member to vote against all three charter schools is the one representing most of northeast Oklahoma City. Adrian Anderson said he believes in the public schools the district already has available.
“What we have right now, I like what we’re doing,” said Anderson, who is a district parent. “The things that I’m hearing, I know that we have work to do. I’m not saying we’ve figured it out. But we’re doing the best we can or should be.”
However, another board member originally from the area disagreed. Carole Thompson, who represents the northern end of the district, urged her fellow board members to give parents more educational choices.
Right now, the Oklahoma City district offers one middle school to families in northeast neighborhoods, she said. One of the charter schools up for consideration, Willard C. Pitts Academy, would have added a second.
“This would be another opportunity for parents to have choice in where their children go to school for middle school,” Thompson said. “There’s only one, and that doesn’t give them a choice.”
Two school applicants voted down
Ultimately, the board voted 4-3 against Willard C. Pitts Academy. The district’s charter review committee noted the school’s application had too few details on its financial plans and no letter of intent from a future facility.
The school’s organizers will take their application to the state level, lead founder LaTasha Timberlake said. Charter applicants who have been denied by their local school district can seek approval from the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
The Oklahoma City school board considered approving a second school that would use the Montessori method, known for its student-guided, hands-on style of learning. P3 Urban Montessori would serve up to 90 students ages 3 to 5 in the 73111 ZIP code.
But, the school was the lowest scoring of the three charter applicants, according to the district’s committee reviews. The school board rejected P3 in a 5-2 vote.
Millwood Board of Ed also votes against P3 Urban Montessori
Oklahoma City wasn’t the only school board to vote down an application from P3 on Monday. The governing board of Millwood Public Schools also rejected the proposed charter.
Millwood Superintendent Cecilia Robinson-Woods is one of the charter’s lead founders. The school’s enrollment zone touches Millwood and Oklahoma City’s boundaries, and P3 organizers applied with both districts.
Millwood’s board denied the request over concerns that its own superintendent would be a future employee and co-founder of the charter school, according to a statement from the board. Robinson-Woods recommended her school board deny it, the statement reads.
“Although OK law does not prohibit her role in both entities simultaneously, we believe that it is in the best interest of MPS and Dr. Robinson-Woods to keep them separate,” board President Rickey Hunt, Sr., said in a written statement.
The group trying to found the school, Legacy Learning Inc., said both school districts made “understandable and respected” decisions.
“Legacy Learning will continue our pursuit of an authorizer by applying to the State Department of Education at first opportunity,” the group said in a statement Tuesday morning. “We firmly believe that our mission to provide free early childhood public Montessori to children in the northeast Oklahoma City area is necessary and achievable.”
Republished in partnership with Oklahoma Voice under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Oklahoma Voice is a part of States Newsroom which is a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: [email protected]. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and Twitter.
Nuria Martinez-Keel covers education for Oklahoma Voice and can be found at @NuriaMKeel on X (Twitter). She worked in newspapers for six years, more than four of which she spent at The Oklahoman covering education and courts. Nuria is an Oklahoma State University graduate.
