Selena says "What we would like to do is form sort of a partnership between our charter school and a district school where we would become a lab school for innovation, testing out new methods and proving that they work and then transition those methods into district schools." I think the best way to help out the Somerville public schools, if that's her concern, is to work out an arrangement to form a program within an existing school, as the Choice Program used to be and the Unidos bilingual program currently is. I sincerely hope she will pursue this idea!
As for her statement that she and others have "reached out to everyone we know personally" & "badgered parents at playgrounds," I personally know several people involved in the charter proposal, including 2 with children in my child's class last year, and in my many conversations with them about school, they never once mentioned to me that they were starting a charter school. (I'm not blaming any of them; I'm just stating a fact.) I'm active in the schools (on the SHS School Council, among other things) and try to stay on top of things, but never heard a peep about this plan.
It's true change occurs more slowly in a large system than in 1 school, but it HAS occurred in Somerville public schools, especially in the last 5 years, and at SHS tremendous things are happening! I hope Selena and others will work for the 90 percent of kids in SPS instead of for just 10%.

As a parent looking into SPS this past year I also felt I was wired into education here in Somerville and no one in the course of the past twelve months mentioned the plan to apply for a new school for opening in 2012....as a person involved in outreach I would think all potential parents would have been approached...yet sadly this has not been the case with SPCS.

Have any of the SPCS “Founders” a) ran for or b) served on the Somerville Public School Committee ?

If they have not participated in seeking election to the School Board – why do they expect us to had them the responsibility of teaching our children? If they seek a democratic system – why did they not run for the SPS committee seats this past November? All candidates were UNOPPOSED .

SCHOOL COMMITTEE WARD ONE MAUREEN A. BASTARDI 639 votes
SCHOOL COMMITTEE WARD TWO M. TERESA CARDOSO 584 votes
SCHOOL COMMITTEE WARD THREE ADAM W. SWEETING 872 votes
SCHOOL COMMITTEE WARD FOUR CHRISTINE THEBERGE RAFAL 1029 votes
SCHOOL COMMITTEE WARD FIVE MARK NIEDERGANG 887 votes
SCHOOL COMMITTEE WARD SIX PAUL BOCKELMAN 911 votes
SCHOOL COMMITTEE WARD SEVEN MARY JO ROSSETTI 1585 votes

What “real-world” experience do any of the “Founders” have in starting and running any form of business to the scale they plan for the SPCS?

Has any SPCS “Founder” held any paid leadership role in the operation of a multi-million dollar educational institution?

For me, the frustrating part of this discussion is that I think there's a lot of agreement among parents that MCAS-centered teaching may not be serving anyone very well and that using the MCAS scores as a measure of "success" will never tell the true story of what's working, what isn't, and why. It has also been my experience that my son's elementary school has been outstanding at meeting his social, creative, and emotional needs. I want that experience for all of Somerville's children. I think we all do. I fervently hope that we can all let go of our attachment to particular ways of solving a problem we can agree exists long enough to see whether we can reach some consensus on how to proceed.

There's a movement to use portfolios to assess student learning and achievement. Ironically, the Ed Reform act of 1993 included portfolio review AND MCAS, but of course it's much easier to give kids a standardized test than to look at collections of their work (not to mention a test industry to pad the pockets of). But I think new ways to review portfolios are being examined, especially at the high school, so maybe there will be some movement on this issue soon.

Also, MCAS is supposed to move to a growth-based ranking system, which I heard would compare growth in scores among districts with SIMILAR demographics rather than comparing actual scores across the whole state each year. Somerville public schools would do much more favorably in this new way of looking at the data.

But for this year, charter school proposals are being made according to the old way of looking at the data, not the growth-based method.

primarily speaking with other parents and general info from the SPS website - I learned about the SPCS application during a parent meeting at TEDCC when another parent asked about the rumor of a new charter school was thinking of opening a new charter school.

Leslie Gildart identified the hinge of innovation turned wrong by the Charter application. They complain that the schools don't succeed using data whose value they - and other real progressives - contest. The MCAS scores track some aspects of what does and should go on in schools, but are hardly the entire picture. No one, except DESE and the Charter proponents, pretends they do. Recognizing this, Ed Reform (which frames both School Councils as the vehicle for change, and MCAS as one of several metrics) calls for portfolios. In most systems statewide, these portfolios have died. Here in Somerville, recognizing the problem, the High School Council authorized electronic portfolios to demonstrate what students learn in ways that are more appropriate to career goals, college, and jobs, and useful to teachers, to administrators, to parents, colleges and employers as well as to the students themselves - as individuals and as peers. The system works well enough for a Harvard forum (also in December) to recognize its significance, and to be invited to international conferences next summer to present these portfolios as unique and distinctive contributions to progressive education.

Too bad the Charter people don't recognize the innovations in their own community.

That sounds really cool, Joe Beckmann.