Tacoma charter school looks to expand to fill void left by another charter’s closure
After June, elementary-aged kids in Tacoma won’t have the option of attending a charter school close by.
That could change in 2021.
Green Dot Destiny Middle School, one of three charter schools in Tacoma, submitted to The Washington State Charter School Commission an intent to apply to expand the grades it serves from 6-8 to K-8.
If approved, the school would fill a void left behind when SOAR Academy closes its doors at the end of the school year due to financial challenges. SOAR, currently the only charter school in Tacoma serving grades K-5, announced its closure in January.
As of December, there were 574 students attending Tacoma’s three charter schools, according to OSPI data. About 140 students attended SOAR Academy as of May 2018, while 242 students attended Destiny Middle School.
For SOAR Academy board chair Thelma Jackson, the possible expansion of Destiny Middle School is good news.
“That would close that gap that SOAR leaves,” Jackson told The News Tribune in February.
Destiny Middle School and SOAR Academy are located on the same campus at 1301 E. 34rd St. Destiny would use the space SOAR vacates for its new students.
“We do have some families that are (both) SOAR families and Destiny families,” Green Dot Public Schools executive director Bree Dusseault said. “The SOAR families definitely helped inform our vision we have for our elementary school.”
Green Dot plans to apply in the 2020 application cycle, meaning the school would start accepting students in fall 2021, Dusseault said.
In the meantime, meetings with the community to determine a vision for the K-8 school will continue. Listening sessions have already been held with SOAR families.
Both SOAR Academy and Destiny Middle School formed in 2015, following a ballot initiative in 2012 that was approved by voters, making Washington the 42nd state to authorize charters.
SOAR is an independent charter, while Destiny Middle School and Summit Olympus High School, Tacoma’s third charter, belong to larger organizations.
That independence made finding funding difficult for SOAR, Jackson said, especially when it comes to serving students with special needs. That’s the main reason the school will close at the end of the year.
“It hits harder when you have a higher proportion of your students who are special needs than your traditional schools,” she said.
OSPI shows about 17 percent of SOAR students are enrolled in special needs programs, compared to 15 percent at Tacoma Public Schools.
Washington state also caps special education funding at 13.5 percent of a district’s total population. To cover the difference, many traditional public schools use levy funding to pay for those students.
Charter schools don’t have access to levy funds like traditional public schools.
The lack of special education funding is a challenge for many Washington schools, but Jackson said it can hit even harder for charter schools.
Officials at Summit Olympus High School and Destiny Middle School say they’re not in danger of closing but that they would like to see change.
“We’re doing fine, but we really would like to (see) equalized funding,” Dusseault said.
