7 Renaissance provider finalists named

by Paul Socolar on Jan 25 2011 Posted in Latest news

Three current Renaissance School managers are joined by four newcomers as the approved provider finalists who will be vying to turn around this year's cohort of six "Renaissance Match" schools, the School District announced Tuesday evening. The seven successfully completed a request for proposal process. They include:

Current managers:

• ASPIRA, Inc. of Pennsylvania
• Mastery Charter Schools
• Universal Companies, Inc.

Newcomers:

• Nueva Esperanza, Inc.
• Foundations, Inc.
• Johns Hopkins University/TD Diplomas Now
• Mosaica Turnaround Teams

The providers will have an opportunity to manage - as charters or contract schools - one or more of the six "Renaissance Match" schools: Gratz, King, Olney East and Olney West high schools and Birney and Clymer elementary schools. Birney is a feeder school for Olney, and Clymer feeds into Gratz.

School advisory councils at each of these schools will recommend a provider to Superintendent Arlene Ackerman by mid-March. She then will make a proposal to the School Reform Commission this spring.

One drama here is that Foundations Inc. will be vying to maintain its management of King High School, which it has run under contract since 2003 as an education management organization. Foundations previously tried to convert King to a charter but failed to gain District approval for the change.

Three other applicants had made the first cut: Scholar Academies of Philadelphia (operator of Young Scholars-Douglass), Green Dot America, of Los Angeles, and Global Partnerships Schools, Inc. of New York. Scholar Academies and Green Dot opted not to respond to the District's request for full proposals and Global Partnership Schools did not make the District's final cut.