Oklahoma City Public Schools board votes to approve new STEAM-based charter school

The Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education approved an amended application for a STEAM-based charter school on Monday night, but rejected two others, at least one of which now plans to turn to the state Board of Education seeking sponsorship.

By a 6-1 vote, the board agreed to sponsor RISE STEAM Academy, designed for students from pre-kindergarten through the fourth grade. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The charter school will lease space from Avery Chapel AME Church, located at 1425 N. Kelham Ave., with plans to open for the 2025-26 academic year. The OKCPS board had turned town RISE STEAM Academy’s initial application in late November.

The board declined again to approve formation of two other proposed charter schools in northeast Oklahoma City. Both had been turned down in November. Willard C. Pitts Academy, which would serve grades five through eight, lost on a 4-3 vote, while P3 Montessori Charter School, for children ages 3-5, only garnered two “yes” votes.

Board vice-chair Lori Bowman said district Superintendent Sean McDaniel had recommended a “yes” vote on the RISE STEAM Academy application and a “no” vote on the other two, and that’s how she voted. Board chair Paula Lewis voted “yes” on all three applications.

“As an elected official … we must consider what the community directly and indirectly communicates with us,” said Lewis, noting more than half of the students in the district boundaries don’t attend an OKCPS school. “We know there are communities that are saying they don’t believe what they envision for their child is happening in our schools. At the same time, we’ve made huge strikes in OKCPS schools to move the needle in the right direction.

“I think it’s a big leap to think that any charter applicant that comes to us is only trying to recruit the kids currently in our OKCPS schools. Charter schools began to exist and they continue to increase in number because parents and the community are looking for a different choice. That is the wave of the future.”

What to know about charter schools in Oklahoma City

Charter schools, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education website, are public schools that are allowed greater flexibility for greater accountability. Charter schools have their own governing boards and are accountable to their sponsoring organization – either a local school board, a university or the state Board of Education. Students have to apply for admission, which often can be determined via lottery.

During its November meeting, the OKCPS board had approved another charter-school application from the Oklahoma Montessori Initiative, which will be the only Oklahoma City public school that will use the Montessori learning method, known for being student-led and self-paced. It’s also scheduled to open in fall 2025.

In addition to the Oklahoma Montessori Initiative and RISE STEAM Academy, OKCPS sponsors six other charter schools, which serve about 2,700 students from pre-K through 12th grade.

More: The state Board of Education has approved another rural charter school in Oklahoma

The RISE STEAM Academy will open with just pre-K, kindergarten and first-grade students and add one grade each year for the following three years. Carma Barlow, the school’s founder, said enrollment is projected to start at 194 students in 2025-26 and grow by 50 students a year to 294 students in 2028-29.

Startup funding will come from grants, including one from the Walton Family Foundation. Barlow said it was important to gain the sponsorship of the OKCPS district.

“What it means is that parents have choice,” Barlow said. “They have a choice and a high-quality option to engage with.”

Board member Carole Thompson said she is encouraged to see more educational options for students and parents in northeast Oklahoma City and voted for the RISE STEAM and Willard C. Pitts Academy proposals on Monday. In support of the Willard C. Pitts project, she said northeast Oklahoma City was “a partial middle-school desert” and said the school “would be another opportunity (for parents) to have a choice where their students go to school. Now they don’t have a choice.”

LaTasha Timberlake, the founder of Willard C. Pitts Academy, said the school’s next move will be to seek sponsorship from the state Board of Education. The board already sponsors multiple charter schools and approved a new sponsorship agreement for one in Okmulgee last month. She said the school could apply for state-board sponsorship as soon as that board’s next meeting, on Jan. 25.

“The process that we’ve been preparing for is to actually be ready after whatever result we got from this meeting,” Timberlake said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC school board votes to sponsor STEAM-based charter school