Three New Charter Schools Give More Options For Tulsa Parents

There will be more school choices for Tulsa parents next fall. Tulsa Public Schools approved plans for three new charter schools during a meeting Tuesday.

The schools will be part of Tulsa's public district and free for students. TPS said it's excited about the additions because the charter schools will help fill a gap in some areas in need of a little extra education attention.

9/2/2014 Related Story: TPS Approves Three New Charter Schools

Nikhil Kawlra knows all about starting up a charter school, it's something he's already done once in Philadelphia.

“Charter schools are important because they're able to work differently to meet the needs of children differently,” he said.

Now he's founding a second school, this time Collegiate Hall, which will fill a void for 120 fourth through eighth graders near 61st and Peoria, where there is no middle school.

“Our goal is really to instill fundamentals as well as character education for all of our children,” Kawlra said.

Charters Schools, while public, have more flexibility than traditional public schools.

As Chelsea Vanacore puts it, teachers are allowed to think outside the box a little more freely to provide a holistic learning experience; but the charters will also mean more class time for students - it comes out to about 40 extra days.

“We want more time, more time that we're allowed to focus on literacy, more time on math, more time on character development, which is another huge part of our program,” she said.

Vanacore is set to open her first charter school, College Bound Academy, next fall. It will serve 96 kindergartners through fourth graders.

Students won't have just one teacher but several who will be experts in the subject they teach.

“They can focus, focus, focus and that's what they do all day, so they're really experts in their craft and they're not teaching five subjects a day,” Vanacore said.

Then, 128 fifth through eighth grade students will have the option of Tulsa Honor Academy. It, along with College Bound, will be the first schools of their kind in east Tulsa.

Vanacore said, “It's a vast community with a lot of needs. We have so many different cultures and languages, and we know the challenges that brings and also how exciting that is, and those families need options just as much so we want to place our school where the need is.”

There are currently three other active charter schools within the Tulsa district.

Tulsa Chief of Staff Amy Polonchek said having six next year will be plenty.

“We are not beating the bushes to have a rapid charter expansion. We want quality and we think we've got great offerings, and we think our district schools are great, so we just want parents to have some choice,” Polonchek said.

There will be some zoning restrictions, but students who are within those boundaries will have a fair shot at getting to enroll at one of the new charter schools.

If too many students enroll, there will be a lottery to draw names.

The schools haven't decided on exact locations yet, but are working with TPS to figure that out.