Charter schools to be explored in Federal Way

By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Superintendent Tom Murphy plans to meet today with the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, a national network of 31 charter schools serving largely low-income minority students.

Some Federal Way School Board members plan to attend a charter-school conference in Seattle tomorrow to talk with other charter-school groups as well.

"I don't think it's wise or prudent to put your head in the sand," Murphy said. "Charter schools are here, so we might as well take a look at them and see if they can help our kids."

Yesterday also marked the official kickoff of an effort to repeal this state's new charter-school law, passed by the Legislature this spring.

Conference information To register for this weekend's charter-school conference, at the Madison Renaissance Hotel in Seattle, call 888-596-1031 or 206-829-1378. For more information about the signature drive to put a referendum on charter schools on the November ballot, call 206-696-2602.

Led by the state's largest teachers union, charter-school opponents hope to gather 98,000 signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot. In 1996 and 2000, Washington state voters turned down initiatives that would have allowed the creation of this new breed of public schools that now are in more than three-dozen states.

Charter schools are privately run, funded with tax dollars and overseen by a public sponsor. They must take all comers, just like public schools; they use a lottery if they have more applicants than spaces.

Charter-school opponents, who include the League of Women Voters and the state Democratic Party, hope state voters will turn them down again.

That prospect, however, is not stopping Federal Way, where the School Board has passed a resolution supporting charter schools on a 3-1 vote, with one member absent.

The district's talks with the national charter-school network will be exploratory. But Federal Way officials have been impressed with the group's track record elsewhere. One of its first schools, in New York City, has been the highest-performing public middle school in the Bronx for six consecutive years.

"I want to find out more about how the KIPP works, what they do, and how it might work here," Murphy said.

The Knowledge Is Power Program, founded by two teachers in the mid-1990s, is supported with grants from Gap and others.

The schools start with fifth-graders, and run through the eighth grade. Students typically attend from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, every other Saturday, and three weeks in the summer.

"This is not for the faint-hearted," said Federal Way board member Charles Hoff.

While representatives of the national charter-school network are in town, they also hope to meet with representatives from other districts, even Seattle, where the School Board has passed a resolution opposing charter schools.

Dick Lilly, the one Seattle board member who didn't vote for the resolution, said he's glad the charter-school network is interested.

"Everything I'd read about them is pretty spectacular," he said.

Knowledge Is Power Program faced initial opposition in other cities, spokesman Stephen Mancini said, but education and civic leaders changed their minds when they learned more about the organization.

"We're going to go where there is the best opportunity to serve the underprivileged in Washington state," Mancini said.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com

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