ITEM FILE PHOTO
Frank DeVito.
BY THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — If Frank DeVito opens the city’s second charter school next year, it will be greeted by hundreds of parents seeking to place their child in the new facility but it will get a frosty reception from officials.
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy and the City Council may have their disagreements, but they’re on the same page when it comes to the controversial alternative public schools. While they claim it’s great for parents to have choice, they say it’s not so great that charter schools “rob” money from traditional schools.
“I agree with giving parents a choice and it makes everyone perform to their highest level, but I don’t like the formula for funding because it takes more than $1 million from our school budget,” said Kennedy. “We are still required to serve every child that comes through our door, but we lose money to the charter school when they take away children whom they have selected.”
DeVito, 51, and his group are in a national competition to redesign the American high school and win $10 million towards opening the Equity Lab Charter School in Lynn. DeVito and his 22-member team of educators are one of 50 finalists in the XQ: Super School Project, the California-based nonprofit chaired by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs. She is president of the Emerson Collective, sponsor of the $50 million competition.
DeVito is a member of Waltham-based Education Development Center’s National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools team, where he develops, implements and tests new ways to boost effective practices in high schools.
Even if DeVito succeeds in bringing a second charter school to Lynn, City Council President and state Rep. Daniel Cahill said there won’t be a welcome mat.
While charters offer an alternative to traditional public schools, he said they are not subject to local controls or approvals, unlike other Lynn schools where the school committee has a budget process to make sure the money is spent properly.
“They operate outside any local control, often not by residents,” he said. “If a charter school student becomes a disciplinary or academic problem, they are turned back into public schools and we accept every child who come to our doors.”
If DeVito’s group does not win the $10 million competition, he vows to still open the new school next year. If his proposal for a new school is accepted by the state, they will provide him with $800 per student to lease or purchase space. He anticipates 160 students for a total of $128,000. In addition, they would receive $2.1 million from Lynn Public Schools or $13,223 per student who switches schools.
In addition, DeVito said he would still have to raise about $250,000 for the school to launch.
DeVito said he understands the hostility from most public officials, but noted that he has already received 300 inquiries from families who want to send their child to the new school.
“Our goal is to return to the original charter school mission where they were supposed to be places to rethink how to work with kids where regular schools are not working,” he said.
If Equity Lab wins approval, they will face competition from the only other charter school in the city, KIPP Academy.
Still, Cahill is not convinced.
“Are charter schools doing innovative things? Absolutely and the whole issue they were going to be an incubator to try new innovative things for schools. So when do we get some of that? Extended day? We don’t have it. I don’t blame parents for trying to get the best education for their kids. But we should be educating all of our kids to the best of our ability and not have a separate but equal system.”
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
