Some parents find a better attitude, enjoy chance to take part in education

The Dayton Daily News

10/9/2005

By Scott Elliott

Dayton Daily News

DAYTON-Marylin Brown has diabetes, and her mother worries about her.

Kindergarten was soon to begin, so Angela Brown visited her neighborhood public school. Marylin needs up to six shots a day.

“They wanted to set up an appointment with me to discuss their policies,” Brown said. “They wouldn’t give me any details. It wasn’t anything they said. I just didn’t feel welcome.”

Sensing her worry, Angie Knick brought Brown along to visit Pathway School of Discovery, a charter school just inside the Dayton city limits from their Huber Heights neighborhood.

“I walked straight up to the principal and told her about Marylin,” Brown said. “She told me, ‘At this school, you’re going to do what you need to do. Any time of day, all day, whatever you need.’ It was very welcoming.”

Pathway, as with its two Dayton sister schools, is a bit of a throwback. Parents don’t need a visitor badge. Nobody’s waving for them to drop their kids at the curb and keep it moving. When mom pops into a classroom, she’s sometimes so familiar almost nobody notices.

What appeals to parents - access, discipline, character building, back-to-basics - also is good for business.

National Heritage Academies, the Michigan-based parent company, this year became the nation’s biggest charter school operator, with 51 charter schools in five states. And it’s the most profitable, making money six straight years in an era that has seen most “education management” companies struggle to break even.

“Families are looking for what they offer, no matter where they are,” said John McLaughlin, a longtime education industry analyst and former National Heritage board member. “They want schools that are safe, good academic environments and that help their child to grow up as a moral person.”

To school districts, forced into competition with charters, the rules don’t seem equal.

“I think we’re always trying, as a public school district, to meet needs of parents, the community and students,” said Cheryl Dale, assistant superintendent in Huber Heights. “But we have requirements, laws and accountabilities they might not have.”

Dayton was one of National Heritage’s early ventures outside of Michigan when it opened its north Dayton school in 2000. Dayton has since evolved into the nation’s hottest charter school market, with 33 schools and more than 6,000 enrolled, or 38 percent of the city’s schoolchildren.

With nearly 1,700 students at Pathway, North Dayton School of Discovery and Emerson Academy, the company is the second largest charter chain in Dayton (Edison Schools enrolls about 2,000 in two schools).

Charter schools are free, tax-supported public schools that are run by private interests, separate from school districts.

Pathway started two years ago with 200 kids in kindergarten to fifth grade. Now it has 630 in grades K to 7.

The chain is best known for its “moral focus,” which emphasizes positive character traits such as integrity, respect, compassion and self-control.

The company locates its schools carefully - in other states, many are in the suburbs. Ohio law only allows charters in the worst-rated districts, but National Heritage built two of its Dayton schools - Pathway and North Dayton School of Discovery - a stone’s throw from the suburbs.

In fact, Pathway draws many more than 150 students from Huber Heights and Fairborn, while North Dayton draws 83 from Trotwood.

Test scores are mixed. Pathway’s state report card results made it the third-best charter school in Dayton and seventh-ranked elementary school in the city overall. Even so, it was rated “academic watch,” the second lowest of five categories.

North Dayton School of Discovery and Emerson were rated “academic emergency,” the lowest category, like most of Dayton’s schools.

But parents are optimistic, and involved.

On a recent morning at Pathway, Angela Brown and Angie Knick joined two other moms in the parent room, making laminated name tags on a string for all 630 kids to aid a new music teacher trying to learn their names.

Brown, who also moved her now fourth-grade son to Pathway even though he had been happy in a Huber Heights elementary school, tried to explain the difference.

“In other schools, they want parents help when they want parents help,” she said. “Otherwise, they don’t really want you around.”

Dale said Huber Heights encourages parent involvement, but she doesn’t like the idea of parents having unfettered access.

“We have parents come in a structured situation. They’re there to do a certain task,” she said. “Parents are welcome in our building all time but have to realize teachers are there to do a job, and that’s to educate the children.”

selliott@DaytonDailyNews.com

© 2005 Dayton Daily News