Leaders of both organizations [BASIS and Great Hearts] said they will begin searching for faculty and campus locations immediately.
“Tomorrow we start that process,” said Great Hearts Texas President Peter Bezanson.
“Charter schools advance”, Lindsay Kastner, San Antonio Express-News, November 16, 2012.
Lindsay Kastner‘s article about the November 16 State Board of Education meeting has lots of interesting details:
- Great Hearts is limited to San Antonio; board member Mavis Knight noted that Great Hearts did not give notice to the Dallas community.
- Great Hearts will apply next year (Generation 18) for a charter to open schools in Dallas. (Evidently Nashville is off the table.)
- Ben Yehuda Academy, a Hebrew-immersion school to be based in San Antonio, was overlooked at the Committee on School Initiatives, but was granted a charter Friday. Dr. Michael Soto voted against.
- BASIS and Great Hearts are part of the Choose to Succeed program, a plan to bring the best charter networks from across the country to San Antonio and help them expand. IDEA Public Schools and KIPP: San Antonio are also part of Choose to Succeed and already have campuses in San Antonio.
- In San Antonio ISD, 26% of students attended charter schools in 2011-12, according to a report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. (That number includes students attending in-district charters—Hawthorne Academy and Bonham Academy.)
- There are now 209 charter schools operating in Texas, including the eight charters granted on Friday. The statutory cap is 215 charters, but the board voted to recommend that the legislature raise the cap to 225.
