Charters say they will be resource after graduation

A network of New Castle charter schools is committing to its students for the long term, promising to help them long after they graduate eighth grade and move onto other schools.

The recently rebranded Vision Academies, which is made up of the Charter School of New Castle (formerly Family Foundations Academy) and EastSide Charter School, is expanding its scope, hiring a director of what it hopes will be a six-member team charged with helping middle-schoolers not only get into high school, but college and career of their choice.

Kendall Massett, director of Delaware Charter Schools Network, said the idea has been successful in other states.

"Is it common? In our schools here in Delaware, no," she said. "Just because we don't have the operating funds to do it. The fact that [Vision Academies] has these two schools together gives them an opportunity to be efficient with their funding."

Seed money for the new position came from the Longwood Foundation, according to Vision Academies.

Helping teens figure out where they want to go to high school is just the beginning, said Aaron Bass, CEO of the New Castle school group, which only operates through grade eight.

He said Vision Academies will help its alumni get internships and jobs, in their field of interest if possible. Bass also feels strongly about helping parents by providing them information about adult education scholarships and job opportunities.

"When families have stronger academic success, stronger job success, the children have more success," he said.

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The charter network's new director of high school placement will be responsible for checking up on students after they leave Vision Academies.

Counselors at the school now help students get into high schools best suited for them.

"If you want to be a doctor, that's great," Bass said. "A vo-tech school's not going to get them there."

The charter program could choose to focus on just getting kids through middle school, but "no one cares if you have the best eighth-graders in the world," Bass said.

He said every educational decision should hinge around: "What does that mean for Delaware? What does that mean for this child?"

Massett said she wishes more charter schools in Delaware could afford to have placement specialists "helping kids understand their choices and what their choices are, which is not easy because not every school is right for every child."

In other states, similar programs have shown that when charter school staff stick with students through college, they perform better academically.

There are more immediate benefits, though.

In Massett's opinion, some students don't finish high school because they're not interested in the programs or curriculum.

"I truly believe a lot of our dropout issue is because our kids are bored," she said.

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More than 40 percent of Delaware students who dropped out of high school in 2014-15 were African-American, while about 37 percent were white and 18 percent Hispanic, according to the Department of Education.

Vision Academies, which draws from nearby urban areas, serves a large amount of minority students.

EastSide Charter School had about 443 students last year, 88.5 percent of whom were African-American and 11.3 percent were Hispanic or Latino, according to the Department of Education. Family Foundation had about 792 students, of which 79.8 percent were African-American, 9.7 percent were Hispanic and 6.8 percent were white.

Faythe Daniels, counselor at Charter School of New Castle, said forward-looking conversations with middle-schoolers start with what they want to do and what they are interested in.

In eighth-grader Nidhi Patel's case, that was math and science. She filled out a "vision plan" and wrote that she wanted to attend the University of Delaware and be a physical therapist.

Daniels helped Patel identify high schools that could help her fulfill her career goals, and Patel eventually applied to Conrad Schools of Science and Charter School of Wilmington.

"Nidhi told me she wanted to be a pediatrician, actually, and I knew Conrad would give her a great jump start for that," Daniels said.

Patel has family members who attended Charter School of Wilmington and are now engineers, which made her eager to apply there, as well.

Another eighth-grader, Nathan Banks, wrote in his vision plan that he wanted to be either a physical therapist or a football quarterback.

He applied to vo-tech schools, but also St. Andrews School, which has a varsity football team

Daniels said many students applied to private schools this year, and many have been accepted. But students are encouraged to look at a range of private, public and charter schools.

"She makes sure we apply to at least three high schools," Patel said.

A high school fair held each year exposes students to schools they may have never heard of, Principal LaRetha Odumosu said.

Bass said it also sends a message from the school to the community: "If you graduate from eighth grade here, we're there for the rest of your life."

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies. 

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