Charter School recruiting in Falls

Charter School for Applied Technologies (CSAT) will be welcoming students from Niagara Falls, free of charge, with busing provided, in the near future.

Niagara Community Information Group (NCIG) is hosting the school for an informational meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 5 for Niagara Falls community members interested in an alternative to the city’s school district.

CSAT, based on Kenmore Avenue in Buffalo, will provide busing to Falls students. It offers K-12 and currently has an enrollment of 2,365 students.

Charter schools have a different environment than traditional public institutions. For example, there is an admissions process and commitments to involvement for students and parents. Uniforms are mandatory as well.

Charter schools are loathed by teacher unions and often rankle the host districts from which they draw because they siphon funding, and students, and they get to choose who deserves to attend – in other words, they can cherry pick the population. They don’t have to accept your misunderstood, and misbehaving snot-nosed pisspot unless she can convince them she is worthy of a chance. There are charter schools that accept all children, even those with special needs or an IEP but that still comes with an expectation for family involvement.

Whether it has a direct impact on Niagara Falls will be decided later when families decide to enroll or not. There is an economic cost to the school district because a qualified charter is funded at the same level per student as the public school from funds taken away from the district where the student lives.

At the root, concerns from NCIG over poor academic performance in Niagara Falls City Schools have brought little to no action.

The group’s request that the school district conduct a national search for a qualified superintendent tasked with improving the performance of students has also fallen on deaf ears.

A charter school performing at the level of the majority of Niagara Falls City Schools for more than a short time will have its charted nonrenewed.

If city schools suddenly find two busloads of kids going to Kenmore daily it shows 1) People want something different and 2) The Niagara Falls School Board should be paying attention because families have an option and if it proves to be a worthy alternative the number of students, and dollars, being siphoned can increase.

US News and World Report publishes rankings and metrics for charters. Here is a link to what it has to say about CSAT. Hopefully someone has the time to compare academic results from Niagara Falls Schools to CSAT. https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/new-york/charter-school-for-applie…