Charter school focuses on science Thursday, November 19, 2009
By JEANETTE DeFORGE jdeforge@repub.com
CHICOPEE – It is the Turkish language class that made Jazzmyn Anderson really like her new school.
“It is really, really fun and it has to do with my career,” the 12-year-old Springfield student said. “I’m going to teach English in Turkey or be an actress, but I will probably do the first one.”
Anderson, a seventh-grader, is one of 200 students from Springfield, Chicopee, Ludlow and West Springfield at the school. They are the first to attend the new Islamic Hampden Charter School of Science on Johnson Road that opened this fall.
The school, which now has grades six through nine, will add one grade every year until it reaches 12th grade and has 350 students, said Harun Celik, school director.
Director Harun Celik and his staff maintain very close relations with their students.
Organizers have been deliberate about their first year. They hired extra teachers so class sizes could be 18 students or smaller. Before school opened, staff also visited each students’ family, he said.
While the school has science in its title, Celik said it is not a place where students are constantly looking through microscopes. The school now has some electives, including Spanish and Turkish classes, and will add more soon.
“We have art, music, physical education … We might have a little more science than other schools,” he said.
Charter schools are public schools funded with tax money but are run by private organizations. The schools have more flexibility but all students must be selected through a lottery.
State senators on Tuesday approved Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s bill to lift a cap on charter schools in Holyoke, Springfield and other poorly performing school districts. The bill now moves to the House of Representatives.
Charter schools are often criticized because they fail to take the most difficult or needy students who have parents who cannot fill out applications or drive them to school. Celik said he tries to counteract that by providing a free bus, invites in parents and even offers them use of the computer lab if they do not have a computer at home….
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