AUGUSTA — The Maine Charter School Commission voted Tuesday to move forward with two of four groups that hope to open new charter schools in Maine.

The groups applied for the last three charter school slots available in Maine, which currently has seven charter schools.

The commission voted to continue working with Acadia Academy in Lewiston-Auburn and Snow Pond Arts Academy in Sidney. It voted not to continue talks with Inspire ME Academy in York County and Peridot Montessori Education in Hancock County.

The votes move Acadia Academy and Snow Pond Arts Academy to a second phase of negotiations with the commission, which involves interviews with the full commission, a public hearing and a more in-depth discussion of school plans.

The public hearings for the two schools will be held in the State House on Oct. 26, Snow Pond Arts Academy at 9 a.m. and Acadia Academy at 2 p.m. On Nov. 17, the commission will vote on whether to enter contract negotiations with either of the schools.

Once a contract is signed, the school is granted a charter by the state. If a contract is signed, the school would open in the fall of 2016.

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State law allows a maximum of 10 charter schools. Maine already has five brick-and-mortar charter schools and two virtual charter schools. A total of 1,540 students attend charter schools in Maine, which has about 184,000 total students.

Snow Pond would be a stand-alone, independent charter school, but be affiliated with the New England Music Camp, a summer camp, and its parent organization, the Snow Pond Center for the Arts.

Commissioners described the relationship as similar to the one between the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences charter school and its affiliate Good Will-Hinckley, a private school in Fairfield.

In both cases, the charter school has contractual relationships with the affiliate to provide certain services, but is a separate entity with an independent board of directors.

Snow Pond Arts Academy would serve ninth- through 12th graders on the same 40-acre campus used by the summer camp, and have access to its facilities. Classes would be taught in classrooms by on-site teachers, using an academic curriculum for core classes such as math, English and science provided by K12 Inc. of Herndon, Virginia, which is the education services provider for Maine Virtual Academy, one of the state’s virtual schools. Students at Snow Pond Arts Academy would not be taught virtually, officials said.

The commission voted 7-0 to continue talks with Snow Pond.

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Acadia Academy was applying for the second time, after its application was dropped at this stage by the commission last year. The school would serve pre-K through sixth grade and have an extended school year, with free summer programming open to all students.

Several commissioners said they continued to have questions about the academic plan and how it aligns to Maine’s Learning Results – the state academic standards. However, they said they would explore those questions in the next stage of negotiations. The commission voted 6-1, with chairwoman Shelley Reed dissenting, to continue talks with Acadia Academy.

Officials said they declined to continue talks with Inspire ME and Peridot Montessori because of a lack of information in their applications in several areas, including finances, fundraising and academic plans.

 


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