Me in the paper. Again.

27Aug09

Not so fun this time.

Time to regroup, PB.

“KIPP chooses Blytheville, Pine Bluff still in running for 2011″ — The Pine Bluff Commercial, August 27, 2009

The Knowledge Is Power Program announced Wednesday that it has chosen Blytheville over Pine Bluff and West Memphis to locate a new charter school. Scott Shirey, director of the KIPP Delta Preparatory School in Helena, said Pine Bluff remains a “strong contender for a school opening in 2011” even though it was not chosen for KIPP’s second school in Arkansas.

“We were enthused by the reception we received in Pine Bluff and we feel positive about being able to bring the program to them in 2011,” he said. “We’re going to continue to work with the community this year to strengthen the application.”

Blytheville was chosen after a competitive process in which applicants had to demonstrate community support, parental demand, financial commitments and suitable facilities. The Department of Education still must approve KIPP’s charter application for the school. The Blytheville public charter school will start with a class of fifth-graders in 2010 and add a grade each year, eventually serving about 320 students in grades five through eight. It will be led by Maisie Wright.

Wright and Shirey attended a meeting last week organized by a local coalition hoping to bring the school to Pine Bluff. Similar meetings were held in Blytheville and West Memphis.

‘This is not over’

Pine Bluff native Dr. Ginny Blankenship, research and fiscal policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock, started the coalition. She and other KIPP advocates for Pine Bluff were disappointed Wednesday but remained optimistic.

“This is not over,” Blankenship said. “We still have a chance to make something great happen in the next couple years.”

She also posted the news on her Web site, ginnyblankenship.wordpress.com, and congratulated Blytheville for its successful campaign. Blankenship said the coalition for Pine Bluff consisted of more than 150 people of various backgrounds including local business leaders, city officials such as Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. and educators. It was formed “just six short weeks ago” when KIPP issued a request for proposals.

“Our coalition still intends to do whatever it takes to make Pine Bluff KIPP’s next expansion site in 2011, and that work begins today,” Blankenship said.

Asked how Pine Bluff could improve on its application, which Shirey iterated was “strong,” he said organizers should continue to expand the coalition and work to secure funding.

Pine Bluff Cable Television announced last week that it would donate $5,000 a year for five years to a local KIPP school.

Facilities available

“Pine Bluff had some really good facility options on the list,” Shirey said. “The facility was not a major concern. We’re confident we can work that out in the next year.”

Joy Blankenship, Dr. Blankenship’s mother-in-law and executive director of Pine Bluff Downtown Development Inc., said KIPP looked at a former Kroger store at 304 S. Chestnut St. as a possibility for the school and the old Greyhound station at 221 W. Fourth Ave. for a possible gymnasium. Both properties are owned by former Pine Bluff resident and real estate developer Elvin W. Moon.

Shirey said Blytheville’s application included more than 60 personal letters of support from parents, community leaders and business partners, along with $50,000 in start-up funding. Their coalition committed to raising at least the same amount in following years.

Key supporters there included KIPP advocate and state Senate Education Committee vice-chairman, Sen. Steve Bryles, D-Blytheville, several business and economic development entities and companies like Nucor Steel Arkansas, Aviation Repair Technology, First National Bank and Southern Bancorp.

“Really it came down to money,” Joy Blankenship said. “We’ll have to start fundraising if we want it here.”

A learning experience

Now that the community is more aware of what KIPP is, she said she thinks getting the business community’s support here will be easier in the next round. “We learned some things from it, too,” she said.

George Talbot Sr. of Talbot Capital Management Inc., another KIPP advocate, agreed. “We’ve done some work and we see what it takes to get it so I think the next go around we can really pull together a stronger proposal,” he said, adding, “I’m just happy that KIPP is interested in expanding in Arkansas.”

Shirey said while Wright was chosen by KIPP to lead the new school, the program also looks for input and support from communities to help “bring in outside talent.” He said principals at future schools — KIPP wants to open two more in 2011 — must complete a year-long Fisher Fellowship principal training program, as Wright did.

“It’s a shared responsibility,” Shirey said. “The more the community can help network and introduce great educators to KIPP, the better chance we’ll have.”

KIPP plans to grow to 12 charter schools in four communities by 2019. Shirey said the focus will remain “primarily in the Delta.” “We’ll probably open it up a little bit wider to let more communities in the Delta have the opportunity (to apply),” he said.

. . .

“Blytheville wins KIPP bid for next charter site” — The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, August 27, 2009

A nationally known charter-school network hopes to expand in the Arkansas Delta by opening a new branch in Blytheville in 2010. The impoverished Mississippi County town beat out competing bids from Pine Bluff and West Memphis for the proposed new KIPP school. KIPP, which stands for the Knowledge is Power Program, currently has an elementary, middle and high school in Helena-West Helena.

Scott Shirey, executive director of KIPP Delta Public Schools, said Wednesday that the combination of community and financial support for KIPP in Blytheville made the difference. Blytheville’s application included 60 personalized letters from parents, businessmen and community leaders and $50,000 in startup funding. There is also vacant retail space in Blytheville’s downtown that seems ideal for a new school, Shirey said.

“Pine Bluff and West Memphis are two great communi-ties that are both deserving of a KIPP school,” Shirey said. “Blytheville just showed a different level of commitment.”

Charter schools are public schools that sign operating agreements, or charters, with the state. The Arkansas Board of Education will hold hearings on new charter applicants in November. By Monday KIPP must submit a formal application outlining its plan for Blytheville.

The three-city competition for the next proposed KIPP school was unique in Arkansas, said Mary Ann Brown, the Arkansas Department of Education’s charter-school program director. Typically, charter-school proposals in Arkansas have developed as local endeavors within specific communities. “This is unchartered territory, so to speak,” Brown said.

KIPP’s national track record of successfully reaching at-risk youths makes it appealing to Delta community leaders, said Jack Poff, a leader of West Memphis’ KIPP drive.

Nationwide, KIPP serves 20,000 students at 82 schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

“So many of these charters are startups that who knows how they’ll perform,” Poff said. “KIPP is a well-known product, and they’re producing results. They have the ability to go into blighted areas and produce the kind of results that are necessary to move areas forward.”

KIPP will have its work cut out for it in Blytheville. Six of seven Blytheville schools are on the state’s list of schools in need of improvement due to falling short of federally mandated achievement standards. The only school not on the improvement list is a district-run charter school targeting at-risk youths. The majority of the district’s students are black and come from low-income families.

Richard Atwill, Blytheville’s superintendent, did not return a call or e-mail for comment Wednesday.

KIPP prides itself on helping historically underperforming students. At its three charter schools in Helena-West Helena, where 86 percent of students come from low-income families and 95 percent are black, KIPP students are exceeding state averages on standardized tests in a number of grades. For example, 94 percent of KIPP’s seventh-graders in Helena-West Helena scored at proficient or advanced levels on the Arkansas Benchmark Exam in math earlier this year. That compares with 52 percent proficient or advanced in Blytheville and 70 percent statewide.

Fifth-grade scores in math and literacy were both below the state average this year in KIPP’s Helena-West Helena school, however. Shirey said that’s because the students hadn’t been enrolled in the program long enough. He said the pupil’s test scores should rise as they progress toward high school.

Besides a reputation for strong community support and in-school discipline, longer school days are one of KIPP’s hallmarks. Students are in school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and also attend special class sessions every other Saturday. KIPP also holds three weeks of mandatory summer school each year.

The new KIPP school in Blytheville would be led by Maisie Wright, a KIPP math and science teacher from Helena-West Helena who began her career in education as a Teach for America Corps member. The Blytheville plan calls for starting with a class of fifth-graders next fall, and then adding a grade each year up through the eighth grade. As they did in Helena-West Helena, Shirey would like to open elementary and high schools in Blytheville.

The new KIPP school would be an open-enrollment charter school. These schools are operated by nonprofit organizations instead of traditional school districts. Charter schools operate under the terms of a five-year renewable contract with the state board. The state’s charter schools are exempt from some of the rules that govern traditional schools, so they have more flexibility to innovate. In return, they are held more accountable for student achievement. The schools are tuition-free and open to all students. If there are more applicants than available slots, as there are in Helena-West Helena, students are chosen randomly via a lottery.

KIPP ultimately wants to open 12 schools in four Arkansas Delta communities by 2019. The plan is to open two more KIPP schools in 2011.

Joy Blankenship, a leader of Pine Bluff’s effort to woo KIPP, said her city will try to attract KIPP again then. She said the city needs to start planning earlier, build up more grass-roots support and raise more startup money. Their unsuccessful drive this year raised interest in KIPP, Blankenship said, which should make it easier to build up support next year. “It’s like taking a test,” she said. “If you don’t do well the first time, you learn for the next time how to prepare.”

With 12 schools in four communities, Shirey estimates KIPP will have about 3,600 students. That should add up to about 15 percent of the Delta’s low-income student population. Shirey hopes that will mark a “tipping point” to force traditional public schools in the Delta to enact educational changes that raise student achievement. “When schools compete, students and parents win,” Shirey said. “That’s the bottom line.”

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