Private Charleston School May Manage Failing Public School

Once construction of a new downtown Charleston, South Carolina elementary school is complete, the Brentwood Middle School now housing its students will be empty.  Local leaders are considering using it as a model for a new experiment in school flexibility.
“The state legislature passed a brand new law (Title 59-19-350) in May 2012 that allows districts to be creative and flexible in delivering educational services within the district,” explains Cindy Bohn Coats, chairwoman of the Charleston County School Board (CCSB).

Charleston is the first district to move towards taking advantage of this new flexibility law.
Such measures often allow districts to convert traditional schools to charter schools – public schools that accept students outside district attendance zones and receive more regulatory freedom in exchange for tighter accountability.  Charleston school leaders are considering morphing this concept by partnering with a local private school to reopen Brentwood with a defined attendance zone in effort to provide choice and relieve overcrowding in its high-poverty neighborhood.

Private-Model Public School
Meeting Street Academy (MSA), opened in Charleston in 2008 to give parents an option outside the poor-performing public schools their children must otherwise attend.  The pre-K-to-fourth-grade school focuses on poor and academically struggling children. Although it spends approximately $12,000 per child per year, outside donors have largely bankrolled their efforts.  Fees to attend MSA are calculated on a sliding scale, with parents generally spending less than $400 a year to educate a child.  Since 2008, attendance has grown to 120 students and the school’s intensive vocabulary and literacy-based pre-K instruction appear to be producing results.  


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