Shiny Apple

Patricia Williams doesn't like seeing such a vast number of local students score basic and below on the state's standardized exams.

It's a problem she's been talking about for years, and she decided to do something about it.

Williams is executive director of The Apple Charter School, a new charter school that will open in Charleston County in the fall of 2010. Its targeted population will be kindergartners through sixth-graders who score basic or below on the state's tests, and she expects many of those students to be impoverished, minority students. Both boys and girls will be accepted, but they will be taught in separate classes.

"We can't keep seeing what we're seeing with our kids," she said. "It can't be just another school opening. I don't think we need that in Charleston County. We need something different."

Williams has worked for nearly two years to see The Apple Charter School become a reality, and it's been a difficult, long process filled with setbacks. The state Charter School Advisory Committee denied approval of the school's application last fall, meaning it had to delay opening for a year. And earlier this fall, the site the school had been planning to use for months fell through, which left them without a building space -- perhaps the biggest hurdle charter schools face.

She felt discouraged and wondered whether her school would open. On a whim, she decided to call the pastor of First Baptist Church of James Island, a site she passed on her daily commute to James Island Charter High, to see what he planned to do with its former church and fellowship hall. That phone call ultimately led to her securing the fellowship hall as the charter school's new home.

As Williams walked around the roughly 7,000-square-foot building, she described her vision for what the space will become -- 12 classrooms with no more than 15 students in a class, a media center and a parent resource room with office space. The school will sacrifice office space so students can use more of the building, and the architectural firm Glick/Boehm and Associates plans to redesign the space to accommodate up to 170 students.

The charter school plans to expand up to eighth grade and add about 200 more students, and it eventually will have to find another site. But the current building will be ready for the 2010-11 school year, Williams said.

She quit her job last week as James Island Charter High's community liaison to devote all of her time and energy into seeing that the new charter school has a smooth start. She's soliciting student applications and will begin hiring teachers in the spring. Until the school receives a state grant next year, Williams and the school's administrative assistant are unpaid volunteers.

In some ways, Williams said the new charter school will be similar to Charleston Development Academy, a charter school that mostly serves students in one of the city's oldest housing projects.

Leon Green, one of the school's board members and a former member of the District 9 (Johns Island) constituent school board, said he hopes the school will prepare students so they can do well in magnet schools. He wants students to develop entrepreneurial skills they'll need in the working world. Academically struggling students will not only be caught up to their peers, but pushed to exceed minimal expectations, he said. "This school hopefully will be a model for other schools to follow," he said.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.