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Thursday, January 19, 2006

APS Board Approves 2 Charter Schools

By Amy Miller
Journal Staff Writer
    The Albuquerque Public Schools board unanimously approved two charter schools for minority students Wednesday.
    The vote received a standing ovation from the audience, following a serious discussion of the issue of racial segregation.
    Although board member Leonard DeLayo voted to approve applications from the Native American Community Academy and the Ralph J Bunche Academy, a multicultural school with an "Afro-centric" focus, he said he worried that the schools could be a form of reverse segregation.
    "Is this creating a system many of us have worked so hard to avoid?" DeLayo said.
    But other board members and Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt said the schools would not be racially segregated. Any student, regardless of race, could attend either school. Students will be selected based on a lottery.
    Also, something innovative must be done to narrow the achievement gap between minority and white students, they argued.
    "Our prison track is more successful than our college track," said member Miguel Acosta.
    Both schools are scheduled to open in 2007. The Native American Community Academy for grades six through 12 will be at Wilson Middle School. Ralph J Bunche Academy for kindergarten through eighth grade could be at the former site of the Amy Biehl Charter High School in the Northeast Heights.
    A third application for Albuquerque Talent Development Secondary Charter School was unanimously rejected.

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