More charter schools planned locally More charter schools planned locally (March 30, 2005)

** Stanford to take over high school and start K-8 school.

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Students from East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park will see their education choices multiply if plans announced last week by Stanford University School of Education officials come to pass.

Pending approval by the state Board of Education, the board of the Ravenswood City School District has voted unanimously to grant a charter to Stanford to operate an elementary school and a high school in the district, said Deborah Stipek, the dean of the Stanford School of Education.

In July, the Stanford Schools Corporation -- a new nonprofit entity founded by the university -- will assume operation of the four-year-old East Palo Alto High School from Aspire Public Schools, said Ms. Stipek. The school, part of the Ravenswood school district, is located in the Willows area of Menlo Park.

Meanwhile, Aspire -- which also runs a K-8 charter school in East Palo Alto -- will be looking for a site to open another charter high school in 2006.

In a letter to district parents, Aspire president Don Shalvey said two college-prep high school programs in the Ravenswood district "will be a powerful force in creating a renaissance in the community."
College-bound

EPA High in Menlo Park will graduate its first senior class on June 17.

More than 90 percent of the class of 2005 are expected to be going to college, including 20 percent to four-year schools, said Ms. Stipek.

Ninety percent of the school's 181 students are from low-income families, she said.

Of the 176 EPA High students who took standardized tests in 2004, state demographic data shows that 68 percent were of Hispanic heritage, 18 percent were African American and 10 percent were Pacific Islander.

Stanford's School of Education has been a partner with Aspire at EPA High. The amicable split was a collaborative decision seen as a way to invigorate high school opportunities in the community, said Aspire spokeswoman Laura Noss.

Aspire's new school would open no later than September 2006, Mr. Shalvey said.
Charter elementary

At about the same time, the new Stanford corporation plans to open a charter elementary school in the Ravenswood district, starting with 80 to 100 kindergarteners and first-graders and perhaps some middle school sixth-graders, building to about 400 students over six years, said Ms. Stipek.

"We hope to use this as a school where we can do some really effective practices and use it as a resource for teachers and principals in the Ravenswood district," she said.
College-level classes

On another front, using $400,000 in seed money granted to EPA High from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the school will initiate an early-college program in association with Canada College in Woodside, according to a Stanford statement.

Canada teachers will teach college-level courses at EPA High, with up to 30 college credits available in a four-year program and up to 60 over five years. Students will be coached, required to attend tutoring and mentoring sessions, and receive advice on choosing a course load.

"Historically, we have not had a large number of students enrolled at Canada from East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park, but programs like this one will hopefully create more access for this important population," said Canada President Rosa Perez.

"The program ... will build resiliency and increase students' chances of succeeding in college once they graduate," said Stanford education professor Linda Darling-Hammond. "Students will also be able to accelerate their learning, thereby working to close the gap between their academic experience and those of their more economically advantaged peers."
Location, location

Where will all these students be sitting when school opens? It's too early to talk about facilities, said Ms. Stipek. EPA High is currently using the former Menlo Oaks middle school campus on Pope Street in Menlo Park.

The Sequoia Union High School District had set aside $6 million to build a campus for EPA High, but that deal was with Aspire, said Ms. Noss. When Aspire leaves, the deal with Sequoia will follow.

Sequoia and Aspire had planned to build a high school on Runnymede Street near the K-8 East Palo Alto Charter School, which Aspire also operates, but it fell through because the site is too near the Palo Alto airport and the exhaust fumes of passing planes.

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