Two new Imagine charter schools open in Clinton area

admin Imagine Schools in the news

“Classes at two new public charter schools in Prince George’s County will start Monday.

Imagine Andrews Public Charter School, located at Joint Base Andrews, and Imagine Foundations 2, in the building that used to hold Morningside Elementary School, are part of Imagine charter schools.

Imagine Andrews will open as an elementary school for about 260 students in grades kindergarten through four. It is the first school located on the base since 1979, after a public school that opened in the 1950s closed.

Patrick Crain, the Maryland Regional Director for Imagine Schools, said grades will be added each year through eighth grade, housing a total of 500 students.

Imagine also runs Lincoln Public Charter School in Temple Hills and Imagine Foundations Public Charter School in Upper Marlboro.

Crain said at Imagine Andrews, 65 percent of the student body are students whose families have been assigned to the base, and 35 percent are from families not assigned to the base, as part of Maryland charter school law.

Students must be residents of Prince George’s County, with admission for military and non-military families chosen via lottery as required by state law.

Crain said all parents or guardians of students who will access the base for school-related events will have background checks performed. Anyone else entering the base will be subject to a security check and/or clearance.

‘We’re bridging the gap between students who live on the base and those who live off the base, and bringing these two communities together that traditionally did not interact much,’ he said.

Crain said Imagine Andrews also will partner with Johns Hopkins University to train and certify teachers to work with students that have family in the military.

‘Our mission is really about supporting students who have parents in the military and experience the stresses of having their parents deployed to far away places in pretty volatile situations,’ Crain said.

Frank O’Gara, a spokesman for the Department of Defense Education Activity, which plans, directs, coordinates and manages education programs for eligible dependents of U.S. military personnel and civilian personnel of the Department of Defense, said the department was not involved in the setup of the charter school.

‘The Andrews project was really a community-driven effort,’ he said. ‘Our authority to operate schools in the United States is very limited.’

Arlington, Va.-based Clark Realty Capital is in the process of developing about 200 new privatized houses and renovating 214 existing houses for military families at Andrews by November 2013, according to its website.

Clark Realty project executive Sean Callahan said the first groups of students at Imagine Andrews will be housed in a temporary building provided rent-free to the school, and the plan is to build a $6 million, 30,000-square-foot facility on another parcel of land on the base that will accommodate the projected 500 students by the 2012-13 school year.

At Imagine Foundations 2 in Morningside, 260 pupils in kindergarten through second grade are enrolled, with the goal of reaching a capacity of 450 when it has fully expanded through eighth grade, Crain said.

Earlier this year, Morningside residents and officials said they were miffed no spots were set aside for town residents and it was too late for them to apply for the lottery.

Principal Hope McGuire was unable to provide figures on the number of neighborhood students enrolled by press time, but said there were slots open after the lottery process, and that the school held enrollment fairs for interested families over the summer.

McGuire said one of her goals is to instill a sense of community in the school because her students are coming from private school, home-schooling and students from Andrews.

‘We’re going to be having a lot of community-based projects, like working with the [Morningside Police Department] next door, as well as family events that are open not only to families of students but the surrounding community as well.'”

Article published on August 18, 2011 by Gazette.net