25 groups seek charter schools

Twenty-five charter school applications - a record number - have been submitted for consideration to the Hillsborough County school district.

The applications include elementary, middle and high schools, as well as combinations of grades for the publicly funded but independently operated educational facilities.

Jenna Hodgens, the district's charter school supervisor, said the Hillsborough County School Board will vote on which to approve at its Dec. 7 meeting.

"Charter schools are a growing thing," Hodgens said. "More and more management companies are getting involved, too."

Other charter schools are run by nonprofit boards of directors. Hillsborough has 30 charter schools, ranging from kindergarten through high school.

This year's applicants are varied. Some seek to serve any student in the district; others want to address specific populations, such as those with learning disabilities. At least three schools seek to have single-gender classrooms and one wants to offer classes in English and Greek.

Several applicants already have a charter school in Hillsborough and are seeking another charter for additional grades.

Such is the case of Community Charter Middle School of Excellence, which opened in August 2008 at 10948 Central Ave. It currently serves about 250 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The operating management group, Leona Group LLC, has applied for a middle school and a high school, which would be open to any student in the district.

Principal Charles Malatesa said parents have requested the additional grades.

"They want their children to stay in the same school for K to 8," Malatesa said, adding that the middle school of 132 students would be on the current campus. The high school would be nearby, perhaps on Busch Boulevard or Fowler Avenue, and serve up to 550 students.

Other organizations with schools in Florida are seeking to expand to Hillsborough County. The nonprofit Einstein Montessori School has schools in Cocoa and Gainesville.

Founder A. Zachary Osbrach wants to offer a program for students in grades three through eight who have been identified with language and literacy disabilities, especially dyslexia. He has partnered with professors at the University of South Florida and wants to have the school near USF.

"I don't feel the public schools have a curriculum that deals with dyslexia - or really can," Osbrach said by phone recently.

Maxine Woodside, executive director of Tampa Bay Community and Family Development Corp., said her organization wants to start a 216-student elementary school at 3000 N. 34{+t}{+h} St., focusing on connecting health with education. If approved, it would be called King's Kids Academy of Health Science.

"In East Tampa, we have a large number of chronic diseases, and we have carried that reputation," Woodside said, adding the organization's directors felt it was best to change the pattern by addressing the children.

Saba Baptiste of the nonprofit Lion's House has applied to operate a high school, Ujima Academy of Academics and Public Service, for up to 320 at-risk students, probably in Ybor City.

The core classes would be single-gender while the elective courses coed, using national models for such schools. Uniforms would be required and online curriculum used in the program would focus on technology. "We address students who have aged out of middle school," she said.

Hodgens said that prior to the board's Dec. 7 vote, applicants will make presentations to and have an interview with a review team. That group makes a recommendation to the superintendent who can approve the work or change it before moving the list forward to the board.