St. Coletta Special Education Public Charter School
Fact Sheet
2001: City officials, mindful of St. Coletta’s 50 year history and excellent reputation for serving students with cognitive and multiple disabilities, approached the school about locating a Special Education program in the District of Columbia.
2002: With help of the office of the mayor, a tract of land was identified at the corner of 19th and Independence Avenue, SE as a potential site for the new school. St. Coletta began a capitol campaign to raise funds to design and develop a state-of-the-art special education facility to house the program.
2003: A ground lease from the District of Columbia to St. Coletta for 5.2 acres within the above referenced tract was vetted and approved by City Council.
2004: In January St. Coletta was told by the Office of Special Education for DCPS that it would be unwilling to refer students to the new facility if it was a private school. The Office strongly urged St. Coletta to become a Public Charter School. At this point the building program for the facility was put on hold until a Charter could be applied for and approved by the Board of Education.
Final zoning approval was granted for the new school in February 2004.
In the process of researching the implications of becoming a Charter school it became clear that the Uniform Per Pupil Funding Formula, as it applies to Level 4 students, would not supply sufficient funds to cover the costs of the services required by students typically served by St. Coletta’s. The Office of Special Education for DCPS agreed with this assessment and began discussions with St. Coletta to develop a Memorandum of Understanding from which operating costs would be supplemented with a “Gap Payment” paid by the Office of Special Education. This Gap Payment would be the difference between the Charter School payment and St. Coletta’s actual costs reported on a per student basis. It was recognized by both sides that this type of Collaboration was unique but also necessary if a Charter School serving this particular population was to be successful. The MOU developed was based on one previously signed by DCPS with the Maya Angelou Public Charter School.
The MOU and its funding formula were referenced in St. Coletta’s Charter Application which was approved by the Board of Education in November 2004.
2005 to Present: On January 7, 2005, Superintendent Clifford Janey signed the MOU with St. Coletta of Greater Washington.
On June 7th, St. Coletta secured funding from the Bank of America in the amount of $16.6 million and began construction in earnest. This funding was in the form of DC Industrial Revenue Bonds. In addition to the $16.6 million financed, St. Coletta has secured $12.4 million in Congressional Appropriations and raised $4 million for what is a $6 million capitol campaign. Total project costs represent a $32 million investment in the District of Columbia by St. Coletta of Greater Washington.
As of July, 2006 the construction project was on schedule and on budget and 99% complete. St. Coletta received the first Charter School Payment and, as per the MOU, the first Gap Payment by the end of the month. We are fully enrolled with 225 charter students and a waiting list has been established.
We extended job offers to over 70 new professional and paraprofessional staff all of whom attended three weeks of training which began on August 21, 2006.
An Open House was held for parents on August 31. One hundred and fifty-one families attended the event.
St. Coletta has been meeting with representatives from DCPS, the SEO and the division of transportation. The meetings with representatives from DCPS are held monthly. The purpose of these meetings is to insure the smooth transition of students and records as well as to foster a two way line of communication.
Because of these ongoing meetings certain key issues were able to be resolved before they became problematic for either party such as the handling of Medicaid reimbursements.
The meetings with the SEO were to insure that we had all the necessary information for the enrollment audit and verification process. Also, one of our obligations under the MOU is to illustrate the need for more adequate funding for the population with the level of disability served by St. Coletta and others.
The meetings with transportation were to insure a smooth staggered start in the new building for the new school year. The staggered start is underway. In addition we have developed a new attendance recording and reporting system that also tracts which students arrive on which bus routes on a daily basis.
Gap Payment:
Before July of 2006 DCPS was paying St. Coletta the Private Provider an average of $50,320 per student per year, with an enrollment of 113 DC resident students.
In the new Charter School, for school year 2006-2007, 225 DC resident students will be served at an average cost for DCPS of $29, 027 per student per year. The remaining costs for each student will be covered by the Charter School payments.
Community Collaborations:
This new facility represents not only an opportunity to serve the neediest students in the District of Columbia but also to partner with organizations that serve the larger community. For example:
· St. Coletta plans to offer staff development opportunities at no charge to DCPS educators serving similar student populations. The trainings will take place at St. Coletta’s facilities and will include DCPS teachers and paraprofessionals.
· In May of 2006, DC General Hospital closed the doors of its Ambulatory Care Center. The Center served 1,800 children in the greater Southeast neighborhood. The Children’s Health Project of DC, which operates in conjunction with Children’s National Medical Center and was housed at the Care Center, has approached St. Coletta and we have agreed to allow them to operate a comprehensive pediatric medical and dental clinic on the grounds of our new facility. These services will be available to the Charter School students and their families as well as those families currently using the Care Center.
· St. Coletta has offered our fully accessible gymnasium to DC Special Olympics for use on nights and weekends.