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Charter schools' new chiefEx-state rep guides alternative schools to maturity status By HUNTER BISHOP The new head of Hawaii's public charter schools is "pretty upbeat" about the future. Former state legislator Jim Shon was named to direct the Charter Schools Administrative Office by the state Board of Education last summer. The oft-troubled, 5-year-old charter school system, established within the Department of Education in 1999, is pushing through a period of "adolescence" and maturing to adult status, said Shon. Charter schools were established by law in 1999 as alternatives to regular public schools. They are part of the DOE but have their own school boards and operate free of certain regulations that apply to regular public schools, giving them flexibility in organization and curriculums. But the charter schools often have been at odds with state officials over funding and operations, so the Legislature established the new charter school office to overcome problems and foster the development of charter schools. The new office was created by the state Legislature in 2003 to oversee the state's 27 charter schools. The first director, Dewey Kim, lasted less than six months in the $85,000-a-year job. Kim had won praise from charter school officials but found it difficult to serve charter schools and the Board of Education at the same time, citing inherent conflicts in the job and personal reasons for stepping down. Shon was then appointed and starting working Sept. 13. "Three days later I found out I had to have a budget," he said. He produced a $28 million budget, which he expects to grow significantly in coming years. Shon spoke Wednesday from his Honolulu office where he was pleased to learned that Gov. Linda Lingle had just released $2.8 million to offset part of a disputed $5.4 million that charter schools say was cut from their budget. The money, designated for employee fringe benefits, was withheld by the DOE even though charter schools have been paying the fringe benefit costs. The issue had been lingering for months. While the problem has not been fully resolved, the immediate crisis is over, Shon said. The money will be allocated directly to the charter schools. "The governor's been very supportive." Shon hopes to get a "more adequate" charter school budget from the Legislature in the 2005 session. "We're asking for $6,700 per student," he said. "That's a pretty big increase but it's still several thousand dollars less" than the DOE spends for regular students. Shon expects charter schools will enroll close to 6,000 students this year and have about 500 employees. About 60 percent of the students are in elementary grades, and nearly 1,500 students are in charter schools with Hawaiian culture curriculums. Shon, 57, is former associate director of the Hawaii Educational Policy Center, University of Hawaii, and served as a state legislator from Oahu from 1984 to 1996. Last month he visited 12 Big Island charter schools and reported to the Board of Education on Nov. 18. Most impressive, Shon noted, were the "dramatic breakthroughs" charter schools have made for autistic and other special education students. Kids who were chronic truants now have 100 percent attendance, he said. One charter school administrator told him of a child so emotionally traumatized that she would not talk, but after less than a year in the school the girl was presenting reports to her class. Shon actually downplayed the fact that charter school students scored better overall than their regular school counterparts on standardized tests, though he noted that two Big Island charter schools -- Volcano School of Arts & Sciences and Innovations PCS in Kailua-Kona -- were among 32 statewide named No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools this fall by the DOE. Many factors are involved in academic excellence, Shon said, including the higher degree of parental involvement among students at charter schools. Also, the schools are closely linked to the communities they serve, especially on the Big Island, with boards comprised of stakeholders in the community. "It's much more grass-rootsy," Shon said. "The Big Island is a good sampler of the charter school movement. It's quite amazing." Up to 48 charter schools are permitted in Hawaii under the law, but new ones must be a conversion from an existing regular public school. No applications are currently on the table, but Shon said conversion opportunities may arise at schools that consistently fail to meet standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. "We're providing a cost-efficient service," he said. Indeed, former "start-up" charter schools, as opposed to conversion, still have to provide their own facilities. A number of schools Shon saw on the Big Island held classes in tents or converted containers, yet they are effective. Student discipline is "terrific," he said. Graffiti is not a problem. Campuses are safe and student fights are rare. Charter schools are smaller, too, and most researchers agree that smaller is better in education. Most charter schools have waiting lists for students to enroll, he said. And as charter schools develop they will become "laboratories of change," leading the way toward education reform. If the charter schools hadn't existed the weighted student formula "wouldn't have resonated" with legislators, he said. Charter schools are designed with a similar funding mechanism. Now, with the recent Act 51 state school reform measure mandating use of the student-weighted formula throughout the system, "other schools are about to make that leap." Shon's first couple of months have involved "stamping out fires, and building a firebreak to prevent them in the future." Many issues remain, including unions' roles in charter schools, he said. "This will be a real important year for charter schools. "We will emerge from the rocky years. I'm pretty upbeat about what I see." Hunter Bishop can be reached at hunter@hawaiitribune-herald.com. |
Updated November 2004
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