Philly school board rejects three new charters
Two new high schools and a K-8 were proposed for Olney, North Philadelphia and Logan. All were rejected unanimously.
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The Philadelphia school board on Thursday said no to three proposed new charter schools that hoped to open in Olney, North Philadelphia, and Logan.
The would-be schools — ASPIRA Business, Finance and Technology Charter High School, ASPIRA Eugenio Maria de Hostos Preparatory Charter School, and Philadelphia Entrepreneurial Development Academy Charter High School were unanimously rejected for academic, financial, and operational reasons.
ASPIRA Business, Finance and Technology Charter High School, which leaders hoped to open in the fall and eventually educate 1,200 high school students, would be located in Olney and would focus on career and technical education.
ASPIRA Eugenio Maria de Hostos Preparatory Charter School, which would eventually educate 1,035 K-8 students in North Philadelphia, proposed a bilingual, bicultural school.
Philadelphia Entrepreneurial Development Academy Charter High School, in Logan, hoped to enroll 600 and focus on project-based learning.
Two of the charters would have been run by ASPIRA, the powerful Hispanic nonprofit that recently lost a state charter appeals board bid to keep running two district schools. In June, the school system will take back ASPIRA Olney Charter High School and ASPIRA Stetson Middle School, both former district schools it had given to ASPIRA to turn around. Charter-school officials said ASPIRA failed to live up to its academic promises.
The charters by law can resubmit applications.