Seeking to Open in School Year 2021-22
16 Charter Applicants Clear First Hurdle
The TEA reports that of the 28 entities that met the Jan. 21 deadline to submit applications for approval to open new charter districts in School Year 2021-22, 16 were approved to take the next step in the process.
The remaining 12 applicants (listed here) were rejected due to findings by the TEA that their applications did not provide all of the required information.
The list of the 16 applicants that will move forward in the application process includes Royal Public Schools (application), which made it on the commissioner’s final charter approval last year for campuses in the Austin and Houston areas, only to be vetoed by the State Board of Education by an 8-5 vote.
This time, the Royal schools charter application seeks to open campuses in the San Antonio area.
Just as it was last year, the current Royal charter application was submitted by Soner Tarim of Sugar Land (near Houston), who co-founded (and was the first CEO of) the Harmony charter school chain. Tarim left the Harmony charter network in 2017, reports reflect.
Several schools operated by Tarim via his charter management company (United School Services) in other states have had a troubled history — including a charter in Alabama that the state’s charter regulatory agency is reportedly on the verge of revoking before it had even opened.
Abelardo Saavedra, a former superintendent of the Houston, Corpus Christi and South San Antonio school districts, is listed as a board member in the Royal Public Schools application.
These are the other 15 charter applicants (see also the Royal Public Schools application link above), and their listed proposed headquarters and/or campus areas:
- 7CS Academy, San Antonio.
- Brilliante Academy, McAllen.
- Cato Classical Academy, Pearland.
- Champions Prep Academy, San Benito.
- Clear Public Charter School, Hays County.
- Curie Academy, Austin.
- Doral Academy of Texas, Hays County.
- Emergent Academy, Donna/Hidalgo County.
- Heritage Classical Academy, Houston.
- Learn4Life-Austin, Austin.
- N.O.W. Academy of Crowley, Crowley/Tarrant County.
- Prelude Preparatory Charter School, San Antonio.
- Rocketship Public Schools, Fort Worth.
- Silicon Hill Academy Charter School, headquarters to be determined (proposed campuses in Travis, Bexar and Harris counties).
- Unique Education Academy of Success, Beaumont.
Next Steps
The next steps in the process include extensive reviews by external panels of reviewers. Applicants surviving the review process will be interviewed by TEA staff and SBOE members during the week of July 27.
The commissioner will make his final picks for new charters by Aug. 17, subject to veto by a majority of SBOE members at their Sept. 8-11 meeting. (The charter approval timeline is included in this document.)
Click here for the TEA charter school home page.