Five proposed charter schools received initial approval from the state Board of Education Wednesday and must now go before the state legislature for a final step in the process before they can open their doors and begin enrolling students.
Among the schools that the board approved was Proudly Respecting Our Unique Differences (PROUD) Academy in Ansonia, which was initially founded in 2023 as a private middle school geared toward LGBTQ+ students and their allies, but shifted to a tuition-free model to better support students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, founder Patty Nicolari said.
“Our board felt funding LGBTQ+ students’ education should be a responsibility of the state,” Nicolari said.
Two charter schools in Stamford — OLAM Public Charter School and Stamford Big Picture Learning Academy — and Taino CoLAB, which applied for campuses in Waterbury and New Haven, also received initial approval after dozens of advocates voiced support for the five schools at the school board’s meeting Wednesday.
“As a child, I experienced how the traditional school system often fails to address the individual needs of students,” said Faith Keegan, a Waterbury parent, in support of Taino CoLAB in Waterbury. “I needed a more tailored approach to manage my anxiety and navigate my education, but like so many others, I missed out on opportunities that could have changed my life.”
Taino CoLAB is proposed as a high school that would prepare students for “college and careers and empowers them to become impactful community leaders,” according to its application, which also says the school “is designed to prepare students for the future workforce through the integration of courses in media and communication arts; business and entrepreneurship; AI, machine learning, and robotics; biotech and health sciences; and social impact and global changes.”
“In our community, children deserve smaller class sizes, individualized programs and extracurricular activities that help them thrive. These critical elements are often missing in conventional public schools, leaving many, especially Black and Latino children, feeling unsupported and unable to succeed,” Keegan said. “Schools like [Taino], have the power to transform lives, providing a supportive and inclusive environment where children can grow academically, socially and emotionally.”
Stamford Superintendent Tamu Lucero, one of the charter school supporters at the meeting, said her district provides “many opportunities for our students, but we know it’s still not enough.”
“We partnered with Stamford’s Charter School for Excellence, and we decided to submit an application so that we would have permanent funding for a program that we think will add value to our school system and our city as a whole,” Lucero said in support of Stamford Big Picture Learning Academy, which if approved by the state legislature will educate students in grades 9-12 “in personalized, interest-based learning.”
OLAM Public Charter School, also in Stamford, is proposed to serve pre-K through eighth grade students. The school would also teach Modern Hebrew to “bridge cultural divides and offer students a unique perspective on history, language and the interconnectedness of global communities,” according to its application.
Representatives from the Connecticut Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state, were the only opposition to the approval of new charter schools at the meeting.
CEA Member Elizabeth Sked said the applications were “poorly announced” with “insufficient community engagement and input,” that charter schools have selective enrollment that “results in inequity, diminished diversity and concentrations of students with the greatest resource needs,” and that the state should instead focus on “sufficiently funding its existing public schools before expanding a parallel system of charter schools.”
For a charter school to open in Connecticut, applicants must undergo an extensive process that includes an analysis of the school’s curriculum, model and community need. There also must be public hearings to determine if there’s a demand and local support from constituents. Applications often take more than a year to be considered.
Prior to 2015, a charter school could begin recruiting students and building its campus as soon as it received approval from the state Board of Education. That year, however, a bill changed the process into a two-tier approval system, where the state Board of Education grants “initial” approval and then funding is approved by lawmakers. The state Department of Education said the change helped make the charter process more transparent.
Connecticut is the only state in the country that requires legislative approval in the creation of charter schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. It’s currently home to 21 charter schools, and approved funding for two more charter schools, the Edmonds Cofield Preparatory Academy for Young Men in New Haven and Norwalk Charter School of Excellence in 2023.
That same year, charter schools in Danbury and Middletown were left out of the state budget and it’s likely that advocates for both schools will try to get them into the biannual budget that’s being crafted this legislative session.
It’s also likely Connecticut will see a larger push in upcoming years towards the development of more charter schools in the state following the launch of the North Star Fellowship.
The fellowship was created out of a partnership between education organization Latinos for Educational Advocacy and Diversity, or LEAD, which has been a strong proponent in an ongoing struggle to open the charter school in Danbury, and The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that has opened over 50 charter schools in Indiana in the last 18 years.
Under the fellowship, four people — with a preference for Connecticut residents — will receive a full salary with benefits for up to two years as they undergo “personalized coaching and support from a network of educational and executive leaders,” collaborate with a cohort, travel and engage with other charter schools across the country with the end goal of creating and eventually launching their own charter schools.