Odyssey Charter has been working on a deal for the old Wanamaker’s building and is planning to open a Charter High School in that location. I had heard about this week and was emailing everyone to find out if this was true. Kilroy, as usual, finds the answer:
Application to Modify an Exsiting Charter – Odyssey Charter School
Facilities Letter
Letter with ConditionThe first prospective acquisition is a land/building purchase consisting of approximately 14 acres and an existing building with approximately 200,000 square feet under roof between 2 stories. Known as the Wanamaker Building, it is a well known landmark in the Wilmington area that is conveniently located within a 5 mile radius of existing Odyssey operations. A Letter of Intent to purchase the property was signed between the owners and Odyssey in Jun 2011. With a timeline in place, the property did not appraise to the level that was expected in the original sale and building renovation projections. Two banks have been working the financing package for Odyssey and both have requested that an “as built” appraisal be performed for Wanamaker to potentially reconcile the perceived loan to value gap. That appraisal will be forthcoming by the end of February 2012. In the meantime, Odyssey is in active negotiations with the owner to craft an alternative potential lease/purchase agreement that may relieve the initial financing constraints. Renovation floor plans have been developed for the Wanamaker building and are provided in Exhibit A.
This charter is in addition to the 2,000 seat mega-charter moving into the donated BofA building. That’s a lot of city charter.
Bet my prediction of a city charter district doesn’t look so far fetched now, does it? All that’s left to figure out is which city public schools become the dumping ground schools – You know, the public schools that will be needed to house the students Charter schools won’t take or will kick out. This is why I laugh every time someone insists, in all caps, that a charter school is a PUBLIC school.
Here’s the deal… if a public school district wants to build a new school, build additions to an existing school, or take over a building and turn it into a school they must inform the community and allow for community input – and, yeah, they aren’t very good at this. Charters seem to seal the deal and then inform the community. Kilroy shows this in action in regards to Newark Charter School:
State Board of education: Application to Modify an Existing Charter: Newark Charter School (For Action) The Board of Directors of this school submitted a Modification Application before the deadline of December 31, 2011 seeking approval to add a high school. The Charter School Accountability Committee has issued its reports on the application. A public hearing on the application was conducted on March 7, 2012.The Secretary will make her recommendations with respect to the application.
To which Kilroy asks:
How can the Charter School Accountability Committee issue a report before completion of public meeting on the 7th? No disrespect to Newark Charter school and parents but for really! How can a report be complete before the required process is competed. It makes it appear public input doesn’t matter. But anyhow, an early congratulation to Newark Charter.
A report can be complete before the required process because the real deal has been done. Everything that follows is simply window dressing. I expect there will be a lot of nodding at tomorrow’s meeting, maybe even a bit of I feel your pain, and then… Approval!
Back to Odyssey and the BofA building: Questions are already being raised concerning the BofA mega-charter and how it will handle all the buses arriving and departing in downtown Wilmington? Parents dropping-off and picking-up children? Fire drills? Sport’s fields?
And there’s no way the current intersection at the old Wanamaker’s building can stay the same when Odyssey moves in. That will need to be drastically improved and I’m seeing the need for an additional traffic light further up the hill. And what about the increased traffic through the surrounding neighborhoods? In the morning and afternoons this area is saturated with school buses and school traffic. Within blocks of this new charter you’ll find Salesianum High School, Friends School (Pre K-12), and Warner. Broom Street is already gridlocked. So… Will Odyssey be coming to the community with their plans? Or is this another done deal?
We really need to put a hold on these charters until everyone is in the loop. Charter Schools insist they’re public schools, if so, perhaps they should have to include the public before going ahead with their plans.