DeLaSalle's Future as a Charter School
The Kansas City, MO School District and DeLaSalle Education Center have been partners for over 25 years. Through our positive and productive partnership, we have achieved a great deal of good for young people and the community. At DeLaSalle, we take great pride in the fact that our collaboration has served so many young people who could not find success in District schools.
As you may have in the Kansas City Star on March 27, however, there is a chance the District may not renew our contract. This saddens us deeply, but we recognize it also presents an opportunity for us to more fully realize our mission. That mission is to provide a holistic program in a safe, nurturing environment for the many young people in Kansas City who need an opportunity to improve learning and life skills.
As with so many things in today's world, we realized our relationship with the District could and would likely change given the state of the system. We knew we needed to prepare for this future and decided to do everything possible so that we could continue delivery of our mission and our model to the many students who come to our door asking for help.
To that end, last year we began investigating the possibility of operating all or part of our high school program as a charter school while still maintaining a contractual relationship with the District. This fall, we applied to and were authorized by the University of Missouri-Kansas City Charter School Center to possibly operate as one of their charter schools to begin operations in the Fall of 2010.
UMKC officials are very supportive of DeLaSalle and made many positive comments on their Evaluation Rubric for our charter application. One section noted the following about our curriculum, “This is a true strength of DeLaSalle High School…Many schools claim to provide individualized and differentiated instruction, but few are designed to…adjust and differentiate instruction. DeLaSalle provides a variety (of) personal and academic student support services.”
On March 26, DeLaSalle Education Center’s charter school application was found to be in full compliance with Missouri statutory law by Missouri’s Board of Education! We were publicly praised by both State commissioners and State staff for our unyielding and long-term commitment to the young people of this community. Moreover, the State staff also recognized the outstanding student outcomes that DeLaSalle requires.
We are optimistic and encouraged by the many individuals who have helped us reach this historic development for the DeLaSalle family. We know that this change might initially concern some of you, but we want to assure you this was a very strategic and deliberate move on our part to enhance the availability of our services to children and families who need them the most.
We believe deeply in the need for the transformation underway in the Kansas City, Missouri School District, and we understand the difficult decisions facing the District's administration. While we believe our mutual goals are best achieved through collaboration rather than competition, we also know DeLaSalle’s transition to a charter school will ultimately help more young people achieve their true potential. Moreover, we anticipate the District’s transformation may come at the price of larger class sizes and more crowded schools, conditions that could challenge student success and may contribute to an even greater need for our services in the community.
We are excited to begin recruiting students. Daily we receive phone calls from parents and family members hoping to enroll their children into DeLaSalle. We had anticipated this development when we began our $6.2 million Capital Campaign two years ago to expand and modernize our facilities allowing us to serve more students.
DeLaSalle remains committed to working with the community to offer high quality and holistic academic and social services to young people in Kansas City who have the most needs and require our support. As always, we appreciate your personal support and continued involvement in the future of our school.