Riding a trend that has been both promising and controversial,
the Pinellas School District will consider approving applications today for three new charter schools.
Two of them- Life Skills Center North Pinellas and Plato Academy North - have counterparts
elsewhere in the county. The third, Life Force Arts and Technology Academy, expressed
interest last year but withdrew its request.
If the board approves the three applications, the number of charter schools
in Pinellas could grow from eight to 11 by August.
"They'll provide innovation and creativity," said Steve Swartzel, one of several
district officials on the charter school oversight team. "The board always has been
interested in allowing parents as many choices as possible."
The applications the board will consider are these:
-Life Skills Center North Pinellas.
-Plato Academy North Pinellas.
-Life Force Arts and Technology Academy, which would integrate arts and technology with core academics.
While the School Board will be reviewing the applications at district headquarters in Largo,
the State Board of Education will meet in Tallahassee to address the growing controversy over
whether school districts should continue to have exclusive authority to issue charter school contracts.
"One of the issues," said State Rep. John Legg, a Port Richey Republican who serves on the
House Schools and Learning Council, "is this concept that charter schools in some counties
could be perceived as competition to the traditional public schools."
Allowing entities other than school districts to approve charter schools could ease some concerns, he said.
Pinellas School Board member Linda Lerner said she was glad to see the charter applications
coming before the board and feels no conflict of interest in reviewing them. "I was very leery of
charter schools at first, but my attitude has evolved," she said. "I think we have had good luck with these smaller schools."
Elsewhere, the 11-year relationship between Florida school districts and charter schools remains
contentious. The state sees them as a legitimate option for families, but critics say that the
schools - which get public money but are largely free of district oversight - have produced
reading and math test scores slightly lower than traditional schools, according to an analysis
released last winter by the state Department of Education.
And while some of Florida's more than 350 charter schools have thrived, nearly 80 have closed. Until
recently, nearly 30 percent were running deficits.
Among those that experienced financial difficulty was Plato Academy in Clearwater, for which Plato
Academy North Pinellas would be a sister school.
The Clearwater school, which opened in August 2004, spent all but $146 of a $250,000 startup grant, forcing
the chairman of its board of directors to work - voluntarily - as interim principal.
Steven Christopoulos, a real estate investor, took over the charter school in November 2004. He says the
school has made a complete turnaround since then, which district officials confirm.
Christopoulos credits the success to high-quality academics, strict discipline and parental involvement. "We managed
from both the financial and academic respects to climb from the bottom of the well all the way to the top," he said.
Oversight team member Swartzel said Plato Academy's situation is similar to what many new schools, whether
public, private or charter, experience in their first-year.
All the more reason, some education experts say, to leave the authorization of charter schools to groups
that have more business savvy.
"Some districts don't have the staff to oversee the schools and they're not committed to guaranteeing
quality," said Sara Mead, a senior research fellow with the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.,
nonprofit public policy institute. "That has been a problem."
Not in Pinellas, says board member Nancy Bostock.
"I know our staff has worked very hard with charter applicants to make sure what they will be offering is
good for the district," Bostock said. "I think that shows Pinellas has been responsible."
Staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek and news researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Donna
Winchester can be reached at winchester@sptimes.com or 727 893-8413.
What is a charter school?
Charter schools are public schools operating under a contractual agreement with the local school
board and run by nonprofit organizations. As part of the state's program of public education,
charter schools offer innovative programs consistent with educational goals established by Florida law.
They are free for students to attend. Teachers work for the school rather than the school district.
Current Pinellas charter schools
Academie Da Vinci, Dunedin: Fine and performing arts curriculum serving 111 students in grades K-5.
Athenian Academy, Dunedin: Greek culture and language immersion serving 129 students in grades K-6.
Plato Academy, Clearwater: Uses the Socratic method to teach 185 students in grades prekindergarten-5.
Pinellas Preparatory Academy, Largo: "Portfolio based" school serving 185 students in grades 4-8.
Life Skills of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg: Serves more than 400 at-risk students ages 16-21 in grades 9-12.
St. Petersburg Collegiate High School, St. Petersburg: Allows students in grades 10-12 to simultaneously
complete the requirements for a high school diploma and an associate's degree from St. Petersburg College; current enrollment: 184.
Imagine Charter School of Pinellas, scheduled to open next year, will emphasize basic reading skills and moral and character education.
Excelsior Academy of Language, scheduled to open next year pending charter approval, will emphasize Spanish instruction.
Proposed charter schools
Life Skills Center North Pinellas would offer up to 500 students ages 16-21 another chance to graduate. Students would work at their own pace with the help of a full-time employment specialist. It would be similar to Life Skills St. Petersburg, a 2-year-old charter school.e_SClBPlato Academy North Pinellas would use Socratic principles and teach Greek to elementary students. Enrollment capped at 464.
Life Force Arts and Technology Academy would offer a multicultural learning environment for up to 245 North Pinellas elementary students.
CLEARWATER - It's a
combination of excitement and frustration that makes
some third-graders blurt out English in a lively Greek
math class at Plato Academy.
Using their native
tongue feels good when explaining multiplication logic
to classmates. But when their English flows, their
teacher quickly interrupts.
"Greek, please,"
Anastasios Kossifidis barks repeatedly.
The math class is a
daily 30-minute Greek immersion course at Plato, a
second-year Pinellas County charter elementary school,
where students learn Greek culture and language in
addition to traditional studies.
The math lessons seem
especially effective, considering 14 of the 16
third-graders are not of Greek descent. On the 2006
FCAT math test, the entire third grade tested at grade
level or higher, making Plato one of seven Florida
schools to earn that distinction.
"The Greek math is
presented in a different way, which makes them think a
little differently," said Kristin Sousa, Plato's
primary third-grade teacher.
Sousa, 29, teaches
math in English for 45 minutes a day. Greek math
instruction reinforces her lessons.
"The students have
achieved," Sousa said. "This is an average group of
third-graders that has worked very hard."
Academic success at
Plato would have been difficult to predict in November
2004. The school was in turmoil three months after
opening at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on
Old Coachman Road.
Mismanagement left
$146 in the school bank account, and enrollment was
down to 32 children, from 78. Teachers had quit. The
principal was fired. Complaints were streaming in to
school district officials.
That's when Steve
Christopoulos, 47, then a parent of two students and a
Plato board member, emerged to save the school.
The semiretired real
estate developer used his own money to keep Plato
afloat and became a volunteer principal determined to
turn the school around. He crafted a rigorous teacher
screening program to hire quality instructors,
enforced a strict discipline policy and rallied
parents to get more involved.
His white Volvo is
now a daily fixture in the school parking lot.
"I got involved, and
it became my passion," said Christopoulos, who has no
formal training in education.
Today, Plato's
finances are in order, district officials say. More
than 100 students are enrolled in pre-kindergarten
through third grade, and there's a waiting list.
About 140 students
are registered for next school year, when fourth and
fifth grades will be added.
Plato has bucked a
trend. Most charter schools struggle mightily
throughout their early years.
"I dare say that the
school would not be as successful if it had not been
for Steve's involvement," said John Lash, Pinellas
County's coordinator for partnership schools and a
former elementary school principal in the district.
"The FCAT scores are
only a small piece of how the school is performing,"
Lash said. "Student achievement will be reviewed at
the end of the school year. But parents obviously like
what they've seen. The big jump in enrollment says a
lot."
The voices of
exuberant students singing high-energy Greek songs
echoed through the gymnasium at the end of Plato's
recent Olympic-style competition. Children in all
grades proudly wore award ribbons while parents sat in
folding chairs and chatted.
Most Plato parents
know no Greek and have no desire to learn.
Many said, though,
that they want their children to learn a foreign
language in elementary school.
With help from five
bilingual teachers from Greece, Christopoulos expects
all students will be fluent in Greek after completing
fifth grade. The Greek teachers' salaries are paid by
the Greek government as part of an international
goodwill program.
In addition to
language instruction, Christopoulos said, keys to
fluency include daily physical education taught only
in Greek and Kossifidis' math classes.
"Mr. Tassos," as
Kossifidis is known around school, nods with authority
when he hears his students give grammatically and
mathematically correct responses.
"Greek is an
important language for them," he said. "So many
English words come from Greek, especially in sciences
and math, like 'geometry.'"
He said he can't
translate into English the warm feelings he gets from
hearing American children verbalizing math reasoning
in Greek.
So he empathizes with
students who use English in class when their Greek
fails them.
"They're trying. It's
OK," Kossifidis said. "Math is our international
language. So we always understand each other."
