Des Moines Public Charter School

“Problems continue to plague Des Moines charter school.” Des Moines Register (IO), 3/26/2012

Des Moines Public Charter School faced challenges even before it opened 15 months ago.

And since January 2011, when it finally did open, it has been plagued with problems.

Among the issues:

Enrollment is below expectations. Instead of the 150 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students the school was projected to have in its second year, there are 115. The school lost more than 40 percent of the 104 students it originally enrolled in its first year, a report to the Des Moines school board shows.

Lack of accountability to the school board or the public. The Des Moines school board was to receive quarterly reports that include such things as students’ academic progress, attendance and test score data, according to the school’s state charter application. The reports were also supposed to be put on the school’s website. In the 15 months the school has been open, the board has received only an annual report; that report is not on the charter school’s website.

Continuing financial problems. The school opened six months behind schedule because of lackluster fundraising. According to its charter application, the school’s budget was estimated at $602,520. This year’s budget is $1 million, a 66 percent increase from the school’s first-year budget.

Staffing has outpaced original projections. In its second year of operation, Des Moines Public Charter was expected to have 6.5 teaching positions and its director was anticipated to be a half-time administrator and half-time fine arts teacher, according to the charter application. The administrative assistant was also a half-time position. This year, there are nine teachers for an enrollment that has 35 fewer students than envisioned; both the director and administrative positions are full-time...

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"Des Moines parents question charter school's focus." Des Moines Register (IO), 4/22/2011

A new Des Moines charter school created for students who seem destined to drop out is recruiting middle-schoolers from across the district — including high achievers — which makes some parents wonder why the school is necessary…

"My recollection is that they had a very targeted group of students that they were hoping to have a significant influence on," said Charles Edwards, a state board member from Des Moines. "Opening it up to the entire population may be a very justifiable thing to do, but it's not what they originally proposed…

Still, an aggressive recruiting effort took some Des Moines parents by surprise.

Christine Comito was upset that her son, a sixth-grader, was pulled out of class at Callanan Middle School last week without her permission for an assembly that touted the charter school's downtown campus, laptop computers for each student and move to uniforms…

Sheila Mauck, another Callanan mother, said the approach seemed "kind of desperate."

"My suspicion is that they're not getting the numbers or the caliber of student" intended for the charter school, Mauck said. "That really makes me question the money being spent."…