Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School - History

History

Parker was one of the first charter schools created under the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993. Started by area parents and teachers, it received its charter on March 15, 1994, opening for the 1995–1996 school year as an Essential School dedicated to the principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools. CES founder Ted Sizer was involved in its founding, and he served as co-principal with his wife Nancy in the 1998–1999 school year. Every five years the school is reviewed by the state to see whether the school's charter should be renewed. Parker's charter was renewed in June 1999 and again in 2004. In 1999, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges selected Parker as a "candidate member school" for accreditation, and it was accredited in 2002.

Parker also is home to the Regional Teachers center (renamed the Theodore R. Sizer Teachers Center on the school's tenth anniversary in 2005). Teachers provide professional help to other teachers, give workshops, and take part in educational conferences. The Teachers Center has hosted hundreds of visitors to Parker from dozens of schools in other states and countries since September 2004. The New Teachers Collaborative is a program that allows beginning teachers to earn their teacher certification in one school year. In addition to Parker, NTC places teachers at Prospect Hill Academy in Somerville/Cambridge, Massachusetts and Murdoch Middle Public and Innovation Academy Charter Schools in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Some NTC veterans go on to work in schools around the country, and many remain at Parker. The Teachers Center recently received a $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through the Teachers Center, Parker spreads the essential school philosophy and aids both newly created schools that are looking for developmental help and well-established schools that are hoping to change, including Newton South High School, Brighton High School, and Shortridge Academy (Milton, NH).

As with all Commonwealth Charter Schools in Massachusetts, Parker receives its funding from the local aid accounts of its students' sending school districts. The Massachusetts Department of Education projects that $3,662,559 ($9,767 per pupil) will be withdrawn from the local aid accounts of sending towns in the 2007–2008 school year. Thanks to fiscal responsibility since its inception, the school had accumulated net assets of $2.5 million as of June 2007.

Because Massachusetts charter schools cannot receive state or local funding for facilities acquirement or improvement, Parker has had to find creative solutions to its housing issues. From its opening in 1995 to 2000, Parker was located in a former Army spy-training building leased from MassDevelopment, a semi-private base redevelopment authority. While this facility provided sufficient space, it had quirks such as a lack of windows, a cafeteria, or a gym. In 2000, the school moved to its current residence, a 1950s-era elementary school, also leased from MassDevelopment, until it was acquired in August 2007.