www.village-charter.org

A plan to build an independent public school (charter school) for the Somerville, Ma. immigrant community is causing debates as plans are finalized. The proposal is one of seven that have recently been submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which plans to announce by mid-September whether or not it will encourage Somerville to file a complete application. After the filing of applications before November 7, the department will release its final decision on which charter proposal to grant by February 28, 2012.

The proposed charter school in Somerville is planned to start operation in September of next year and has an expected number of 180 enrollees. According to the founding group’s coordinator, Selena Fitanides, the school is predicted to have approximately 425 students in 5 years.

She said that the proposed charter school would be “very student-centric, really focused on the individual and tailoring the curricular and instructional needs to that individual,’’ and would concentrate on “serving the needs of children in Somerville whose first language is not English, the children of fairly recent immigrants.”

Since the children will generally come from migrant families, especially those with Spanish backgrounds, Fitanides said, “We need to find a better way to educate those kids. Our current system is not well suited to addressing their needs. We are losing a lot of these kids because they are dropping out of school.’’

The charter school will also focus on technology, engineering, building science and math, and will feature extended time in learning and shared learning within mixed ages. They will also practice involvement of the whole school community regarding decision making.