Who’s your sponsor?

If you already know how charters work in Missouri, you’re likely wondering who our sponsor is. For those new to the charter conversation, charter schools must have the approval of a sponsoring institution when applying to DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) for the authorization to recognize the charter and operate a school. In Missouri those sponsors are limited to:

• The local school district (SLPS in our case)

• Public or private universities and colleges in the state that operate teacher education programs

• DESE

We spent most of the 0708 school year in conversation with Webster about sponsoring our charter. When Webster officially declined to sponsor our charter in July (the university has not yet sponsored any charter), we regrouped and resubmitted our charter to other potential sponsors. Potential sponsor #2 is currently reviewing our charter and as soon as we have a firm commitment for sponsorship, we’ll let you know.

Optimistically.