contact: for immediate release

Karen S. Mittelman

Chair

Friends of the Bay Arts & Sciences

Public Charter School

410-286-7048

www.baspcs.org

calvert county’s first charter SCHOOL MOVES CLOSER TO APPROVAL

Prince Frederick, MD, February 29, 2008. Founders of Calvert County’s first proposed public charter school learned this week that the state Board of Education had ruled on their appeal. Last September, the Calvert County Board of Education rejected an application from the Friends of the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School (BASPCS) to operate a charter school. The charter school group appealed this decision to the Maryland Board of Education. On February 26, 2008, the state Board of Education met in executive session to consider the appeal. They concluded that while there are weaknesses in the BASPCS application, they believe these weaknesses can be resolved. They have directed both parties – the BASPCS Board and Calvert County Board of Education – to work cooperatively to address these issues and, most important, to work toward quick approval of the charter application.

This is a very unusual decision for the state Board to make. The Board’s written opinion acknowledges that their order is extraordinary, but explains that “we find that this is an unusual case because, unlike most charter school applications, the application here appeared thorough and well-developed.”

“We are delighted that the state Board of Education recognized the quality of our application,” says Karen Mittelman, chair of the charter school’s founding group. “This decision brings us one huge step closer to our goal of offering a high-quality, innovative public education to the students and families of Calvert County.”

The proposed curriculum at the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School emphasizes environmental studies and active, hands-on learning experiences. When they are not in the classroom, students will be busy learning outdoors – they might be analyzing the water quality of a stream that feeds into the Patuxent River, participating in an archeological dig at Jefferson Patterson Park or creating a sculpture garden on the school campus in collaboration with local artists. The idea, school founders explain, is to use the entire Chesapeake Bay region as a teaching laboratory.

BASPCS Board members say they look forward to working with the Calvert County Board of Education to implement this innovative educational plan. “We share the state Board’s confidence that as long as both parties act in good faith, we will be able to address the questions that have been raised about our application,” Mittelman said. “We look forward to collaborating with the Calvert County Board of Education and their staff to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.”

The proposed charter school has generated a great deal of excitement in the Calvert County community and beyond. Partnerships are already in place with local cultural institutions such as the Calvert Marine Museum and Jefferson Patterson Park, both of which have agreed to host Bay Arts & Sciences students for intensive hands-on teaching units. “The research tells us that learning by doing is learning that sticks with students,” says Doug Alves, director of the Calvert Marine Museum. “The alternative that a charter school offers will be highly valuable to the public school system as it can provide a place for those learners who do not perform well in a traditional classroom setting and need a more action-based learning approach.” According to Princeton University’s William Westerman, one of the school’s academic advisors, “The genius of the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School is that it employs the local as a textbook to be read, whether the history, the science, or the culture. By learning to see what is meaningful in the world around them, students will draw connections to the larger world. The campus will become a living laboratory for knowledge and discovery.”

Once approved, the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School will open in a modular-style, “green” facility to be built on a 15-acre wooded property in Prince Frederick, Maryland. Admission will be free and open to all Calvert County students. In its first year of operation, the school will serve approximately 110 students in grades 6 through 8. Beginning the second year, the school will expand upward, adding one grade per year and growing along with its students. At full capacity, both a middle school and high school course of study will be offered for up to 260 students. Classes will remain small, allowing for individual attention to each student’s needs and development. The founders’ vision is to create a school that feels like a community, where parents and teachers are deeply involved in each child’s education; where learning takes place in an atmosphere of support and trust; and where students graduate with a deep sense of connection to the natural environment and an understanding of the history that has shaped the Bay watershed.

About the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School:

The mission of the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School is to provide an exceptional public education in an environment that supports creativity, imagination and self-directed learning. The curriculum emphasizes the natural history, social history, cultures and ecology of the Chesapeake Bay region, offering Calvert County students meaningful connections to the Bay and the wider community in which they live.

For more information about the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School’s mission and curriculum, please visit www.baspcs.org.

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