ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown School Board has heard another application to approve a charter school in the city focused on STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.
The application, heard Thursday, was a new pitch for basically the same concept, with some changes from the last application submitted in November 2022.
The district denied Lehigh Valley STEAM Academy Charter School in February after two public hearings in which applicant group members and their attorney responded to questions about the proposed school from Allison Peterson, an attorney for the district.
The first hearing was held in December 2022, and the second in January. Applicants also had trouble with securing the school’s location during the application period because it was in an industrial area.
“What we decided to do was resubmit the application as a new application. We also changed some things that we considered needed to be changed because after reflecting on the first application, we decided our focus needed to be stronger with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.”Charter school consultant Carlos Lopez
Carlos Lopez, who is a consultant with the effort and a member of the proposed school's founding board, said they tried to appeal the decision, but was unable to collect the requisite signatures.
State guidelines say that to appeal a denial, charter school applicants have 60 days to collect 1,000 signatures from adults, or 2% of the school district’s population, whichever is less.
“What we decided to do was resubmit the application as a new application,” Lopez said. “We also changed some things that we considered needed to be changed because after reflecting on the first application, we decided our focus needed to be stronger with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.”
Top reason STEAM school needed
Janice Solkov presented the application to the board. The current proposal has the school year starting on Aug. 26 and ending on June 13 for kindergarten through third grade.
One grade a year will be added until it reaches eighth grade in 2028-29, when the first year the charter is up for renewal.
The application said it is projecting a 9.5-to-1 ratio of students to teachers at the end of the fifth year, “when there will be 600 students and 63.5 staff members.”
“What we decided to do was resubmit the application as a new application."Carlos Lopez, a founding board member of the Lehigh Valley STEAM Academy Charter School
Carlos Lopez pointed to Allentown School District’s PSSA scores as a top reason the Lehigh Valley STEAM school is needed.
The PowerPoint presentation showed that for English language arts for third through eighth grade, proficiency rates were below 30%.
Proficiency rates for math dropped sharply, from 24% in third grade to 2.4% in eighth grade. Science test results, which are taken by fourth- and eighth-graders, were 47.3% and 21.3%, respectively.
Allentown Schools Superintendent Carol Birks said recently at a strategic planning kickoff event that the district is looking at many ways to improve the educational experience for all students.
“There's multiple opportunities for students to be successful,” Birks said.
“I mean, the standardized tests are just one data point. But we have to look at even students' behavioral outcomes, attendance, discipline, as well as how they perform in other academic courses."
Families continue to sign up
Carol Lopez, Lopez’s wife and a member of the proposed school's founding board, said what makes the application stronger than the previous one is that it has created a curriculum that incorporates standards recently adopted by the state for teaching Science, Technology & Engineering, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability, or STEELS.
“On our website, we still have families who are pre-enrolling their children. So I maintain a website of K to 12 enrollment and this week, I even received five more.”Carol Lopez, a member of the proposed school's board
Carol Lopez said families continue to sign up for the school even as it waits for approval.
“On our website, we still have families who are pre-enrolling their children,” she said. “So I maintain a website of K to 12 enrollment and this week, I even received five more.”
During the hearing, the location of 510 and 512 Hamilton St. was mentioned as the space for the charter school.
The school district plans to schedule another hearing on the application for January. The district has 75 days after the first public hearing to issue a decision.
A Lehigh Valley STEAM Academy Charter School will present its application to Bethlehem Area School District on Monday, Dec. 18.
There also is STEAM Academy charter school website with an address of 215 Quarry St. in Whitehall.
