New charter school races toward August start date

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

Chris Oswald of Brittingham Mechanical uses a tamper Wednesday after water and sewer lines were laid connecting the mobile units that will temporarily house the Charleston Charter School for Math & Science on the former Rivers Middle School campus.

The excitement of creating a brand new school is a feeling that few experience, but those involved with the Charleston Charter School for Math & Science know the emotion well and say they can't wait for opening day.

The much-discussed charter school will get $1.4 million this year to serve 200 sixth- through ninth-grade students on the former Rivers Middle School campus in downtown Charleston. The concept of the charter school has divided the community, with some saying it will be a much-needed, racially diverse, high-quality public school option while others say it will be nothing more than a private school paid for with public money that caters to white parents.

The Charleston County School Board, in a controversial decision, agreed to pay for the school's mobile units until renovations to the Rivers campus are done. The charter school's 12 mobile classrooms likely won't be ready until Aug. 6, less than two weeks before school starts Aug. 19.

Anyone opening a new school worries about what will be done by the first day, said school Principal Peter Smyth, and the August timeline for moving in will be "pushing it." But he said he's confident the school will open on time.

The charter school will use the gym and cafeteria on the Rivers campus, both of which are undergoing renovations that should be finished by early this school year, he said.

The charter school doesn't have admissions requirements but held a lottery to accept students from across the county. Students still may apply for 12 openings in its ninth-grade class, but the school has waiting lists for every other grade.

Smyth said he wants the school to do more than focus on standardized testing, and he wants more relevance in classes so students understand the real-world connection to what they're learning. The school will offer Spanish, French and Latin, and high school students will take elective courses in business entrepreneurship, biomedical science or engineering. Every classroom will have a Smartboard, and the campus will have wireless internet. The charter school will offer sports, music and visual arts, robotics and engineering activities, and before- and after-school programs.

The charter school's staff is mostly in place, with all but one of the 13 full-time, certified teachers being hired. Although teachers' pay doesn't begin until August, they already have been meeting and planning to prepare for the school year.

Julie Sara Mobley, who will teach freshmen math this year, came to the charter school's temporary base in a classroom at James Island Charter High on Wednesday to do some work. She was attracted to the school because it will have small learning communities - middle and high school class sizes will be about 20 students each — and because it will be innovative, she said.

The charter school model enables a bottom-up approach to education, and teachers will have a say in decisions that affect them, such as deadlines for report card grades or criteria that will be used to evaluate their performance, she said. It creates more work for teachers, but it doesn't feel like work because they are treated like professionals whose opinions are respected and valued, she said.

She said she doesn't see the controversy that's surrounded the school as having a negative effect on it.

"I read it, but none of what is said affects how I go about teaching students or how they learn," she said. "I know it's going to be successful."

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.