contact: for
immediate release
Karen S. Mittelman
Chair
Friends of the Bay Arts
& Sciences
Public Charter School
410-286-7048
new
school focused on environment aims to be calvert county’s first charter
Prince
Frederick, MD, July 26, 2007. Imagine a school where the classrooms are
frequently empty, because students are 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 Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School,
a proposed charter school that aims to be the first in Calvert County, will
offer just this kind of educational experience. “We’ll be using the entire
Chesapeake Bay region as a teaching laboratory,” explains Karen Mittelman, one
of the school’s founders. “The curriculum we’ve designed emphasizes environmental
studies and active, hands-on learning experiences. We want students to graduate
with a deep sense of connection to the natural environment that surrounds us
here in Calvert County, and an understanding of the history that has shaped our
region.”
The 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.”
In its first year of operation (2008-2009),
the Bay Arts & Sciences Public
Charter School will serve 108 students in grades 6 through 8. Beginning in
2009, the school will expand upward, adding one grade per year and growing
along with its students. By the 2012-2013 academic year, the school will be operating
at full capacity, offering both a middle school and high school course of study
for up to 252 students. Classes will remain small (a maximum of 18 students per
classroom) 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 knowing that they have a responsibility to make a
difference in the world.
In addition to its focus on environmental
education, the Bay Arts & Sciences
Public Charter School will
emphasize service to the local community.
School founders are exploring a partnership with the Boys and Girls
Clubs of Southern Maryland (BGCSM), which will consider operating an
after-school program at the charter school site. “Like the Boys and Girls
Clubs, the charter school founders understand that our young people have a
responsibility to play meaningful roles in the world,” says Pamela Wilkerson, president
and CEO of the BGCSM. “This school will equip students with the intellectual
tools and self-confidence to recognize that they can make a difference.”
The
Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School awaits approval by the
Calvert County Board of Education. Charter schools are free, public schools
designed by teachers, parents, and community leaders who are looking for
alternatives to traditional schooling. Charters are authorized by local Boards
of Education, and their academic performance and fiscal practices are
accountable to the authorizers and to the parents of the student they educate. These
schools operate with some independence, allowing greater flexibility and
creativity in administrative structure and curriculum. There are currently
about 4,000 charter schools across the nation, educating more than one million
children. Twenty-one charter schools operate
in the state of Maryland, and nine are scheduled to open in the coming year.
Once approved, the Bay Arts & Sciences Public Charter School will open in August 2008
on a 15-acre wooded property in Prince Frederick, Maryland. Admission will be
free and open to all Calvert County students in grades 6 through 8. Plans for future expansion include
construction of an eco-friendly, “green” school facility.
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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