CHARTER SCHOOLS -- SECOND OF FOUR PARTS; CHARTER SCHOOLS ESTABLISH NEW COURSE IN KANSAS CITY

Charter schools have charted a new course for education in Kansas City, where nearly 4,500 students are enrolled in 15 schools this fall.

Two more charter schools will open in 2000. Others are being considered as parents and educators look for alternatives to what many see as a failing public school district.

The state Board of Education voted last month to end the district's accreditation by May 1 because it failed to meet performance goals in all 11 categories measured by the state.

The school district still educates the bulk of the city's students, about 32,000 in all. But in their first months of operation, charter schools have sparked enthusiasm from parents and students.

Linda Fewell couldn't be happier. Her son is a sixth-grader at the Kansas City Foreign Language Charter School. The school's 260 students in kindergarten through eighth grade are taught in French by teachers from France, Belgium and other countries where it is a native language.

The school has about 16 teachers, an academic director and office manager.

Fewell, who works for Hallmark Cards, said her son was immersed in French since kindergarten as a student in a special program in the public school district. She and her husband welcomed the chance to move their son to the new school where accountability is a key mission."Charter schools are measured. They are measured and tracked and responsible for the education of the children that attend," said Fewell, who volunteers at the school.

Like other charter schools in Kansas City, the Foreign Language School isn't an elite, white school. Minorities comprise 58 percent of the students. Among all the charter schools, minorities make up more than half of the student population.

The school is one of 11 Kansas City charter schools sponsored by Central Missouri State University at Warrensburg. Ten are operating in the Kansas City area and another is scheduled to open next year.

Fewell likes the fact that Central Missouri State will put together a team to evaluate the school once a year."I think that is marvelous," she said. "In my experience that kind of evaluation didn't occur in the public school setting."At the Kansas City Foreign Language School and Toolbar Academy, students wear uniforms.

At the Southwest Charter middle school there are no class bells. The day is organized into projects. When a project is finished the group moves on to a new project.

The Della Lamb Elementary Charter School opened this summer, the first charter school to open its doors under a new state law enacted in 1998. Unlike traditional schools, Della Lamb will operate year-round.

Most of the charter schools are operating in churches or old church buildings, said Tammy Blossom, director of strategic ventures for The Learning Exchange, a non-profit educational group in Kansas City that has helped charter schools get up and running."There have been some buildings that have been purchased," she said. "We have three different management companies doing work with charter schools in Kansas City."Edison Schools Inc., based in New York City, is one of the management companies. The firm purchased a community center for use as a charter elementary school in Kansas City. Edison operates 72 schools nationally, including three in Kansas City.

Twenty percent of the Kansas City charter schools are run by private management companies. The national average is 10 percent.

Most of the charter schools in Kansas City are serving the elementary grade levels. About 80 percent of the students in the charter schools came from the school district. The other 20 percent are from parochial, private or home schools.

Charter schools appeal to teachers, Blossom said. "Teachers like having a little more freedom."Kansas City's charter schools are expected to receive about $27 million in state and local tax money in their initial year of operation. The state is expected to pump in nearly $19 million with the other $8 million coming from the school district's tax-levy revenue.

The state aid includes funding for transporting students to six charter schools and money for at-risk students as well as basic funding.

For charter schools in Kansas City, the basic funding amounts to about $5,100 per pupil in state and local tax funding.

Gerri Ogle, coordinator of school administrative services for the Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the per-pupil figure is about $6,100. But the school district is allowed to keep about $1,000 of the per-pupil figure to retire debt.

Of the remaining $5,100 per pupil, slightly more than half would come from the state with school-district tax money providing the rest of the funding, Ogle said.

Tax dollars alone aren't funding the schools. Kansas City's business community has embraced charter schools. In four months the business community raised $460,000 to support the start up of charter schools.

Eight of the 15 charter schools received some funding through The Learning Exchange. Some schools have taken out loans."We didn't lobby for the law, but we took the approach that if we are going to have charter schools, let's make sure we have good charter schools," said Blossom.

Her group brought together the four sponsoring organizations: Central Missouri State, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Kansas City School District and the Metropolitan Community College system. All but the community colleges are sponsoring charter schools. The community colleges, however, are working with some of the charter schools, Blossom said.

Even the Kansas City School District has transformed a high school and a middle school into a charter operation, with total enrollment of more than 1,700 students.

Blossom said her organization has served as a resource center for all the sponsors, educating them about the concept of charter schools and helping to administer the application process.