This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia School Partnership will provide $10.5 million in startup grants to five new charter schools that were approved to open for the 2016-17 year.
PSP will provide $3.3 million to Mastery Charter Schools to open Gillespie, a K-6 campus in North Philadelphia that plans eventually to enroll 588 students – giving admissions preference to students living in the Simon Gratz catchment area.
Students at Gillespie would naturally matriculate into Gratz, a grade 7-12 Renaissance school run by Mastery.
Mastery says it now intends to postpone Gillespie’s opening until 2017-18. The charter is also pursuing operations of Germantown’s Wister Elementary through the Renaissance process.
KIPP will receive $1.6 million to boost its opening of a new West Philadelphia elementary serving 375 students, offering a channel to an existing West Philly KIPP middle school.
Freire Charter will get $1.9 million as it opens TECH Freire, a North Philadelphia-based high school serving 580 students with a focus on computer programming and entrepreneurship. TECH Freire is to give admissions preference to children living in the Strawberry Mansion catchment.
MaST will receive $1.9 million to open a new charter school in lower Northeast Philadelphia that plans to grow to 1,250 students.
PSP will also give a $1.7 million grant to Independence Charter to open a new K-8 school enrolling 900 students – giving preference to children who live in the West Philadelphia catchments of Sayre, Bartram, and Overbrook High Schools.