Shaolin Charter School

[GeneChing]

This would be extraordinary.

Posted on Wed, Oct. 19, 2011
N.J. announces applications for 42 more charter schools (http://www.philly.com/philly/education/132110538.html)
By Rita Giordano

Inquirer Staff Writer
The desire to open charter schools in New Jersey appears to remain strong, as the state Tuesday announced a new crop of 42 charter applicants.

While shy of the 58 named in April by the Department of Education, this list represents a sizable showing of interest, including in some nonurban districts that are not traditionally fertile soil for the alternative schools.

In South Jersey, the Creative Arts Charter School would open in the generally well-performing Voorhees Township district, eventually accommodating 190 children in grades two through five.

Sponsor Pamela Brown, an art educator, said the school would offer a year-round arts-based curriculum.

Brown said she was "very hopeful" that the state's recent approval of the Regis Academy Charter School to serve Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Somerdale, and Lawnside would "open the doors" for her school.

The Cherry Hill district is fighting the state's approval of Regis, saying, as officials in other suburban districts around the state do, that charters in non-failing districts are unnecessary and siphon aid money away from well-performing schools.

Cherry Hill estimates it would lose as much as $1.9 million depending on how many students opt to attend Regis.

Regis' founder, the Rev. Amir Khan, pastor of the Solid Rock Worship Center, said his school, which would be nonreligious, as required by law, would be an alternative for families who want one.

Among the other new charter proposals announced Tuesday is the Shaolin Temple Charter School in Somerdale, which would grow to 260 students in grades kindergarten through 12.

The charter sponsors could not be reached, but the Shaolin Temple, based on its website, appears to be a Buddhist temple with an emphasis on martial arts.

Four new charters are proposed for Camden City, and one, the Willingboro College Prep Charter High School, is proposed in Burlington County. It plans to grow to 450 students.

Last month, the state announced the approval of four new charter schools, bringing the number given the OK this year to 27.

Charter schools are independently run schools that receive public funding.

The new applicants will learn in January if they are approved, according to an Education Department spokeswoman.

[GeneChing]

How about 'abbot' Sifu Lu?

Charters apply for more suburban schools (http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20111020/NEWS01/310200025/Charters-apply-more-suburban-schools)
6:39 AM, Oct. 20, 2011 |
Written by
BARBARA S. ROTHSCHILD
Courier-Post Staff

TRENTON — The state Department of Education this week received 42 new applications for charter schools, including eight in South Jersey.

What’s new about this round is the growing number of applicants from the suburbs, including ones for schools that would open in Willingboro, Somerdale, Voorhees and Monroe Township.

Only half the South Jersey applications for the tri-county area are for Camden schools, which currently account for nearly all the charter schools in the tri-county area.

Two charter schools are operating in Burlington County — one serving Florence students, the other serving New Hanover, Pemberton Township and Springfield.

In Camden County, there are suburban schools in Winslow and Gloucester Township.

Potter’s Hand International Conservatory School in Monroe, which would eventually serve 360 students from kindergarten through eighth grade, is the only Gloucester County charter school listed among the latest applications and would be the first to open in the county.

Under Gov. Chris Christie, charter school applications are being encouraged as one way to provide choice. There have been 100 applications this year, and 27 approvals.

Schools in this round of applications, if approved, are likely to open in September 2013, DOE spokeswoman Allison Kobus said. Some could open as soon as September 2012.

The DOE is expected to announce approvals in January.

The two suburban Camden County applicants are Shaolin Temple Charter School in Somerdale and Creative Studies Charter School in Voorhees.

Shaolin Temple Charter School lists as its contact Royee Filler, the head monk of the Buddhist church in Somerdale that is affiliated with the Shaolin Kung Fu-Tai Chi Center. The center teaches a 1,500-year-old martial arts system developed by the Shaolin monks at China’s ancient Honan Temple for health, meditation, physical conditioning, overall fitness and self-defense, and also provides after-school care for disadvantaged, at-risk children and those with behavioral issues.

The school’s lead person is DeVita Ledgister, who helps run the after-school program.

Ledgister, a Sicklerville resident who has taken in abandoned and abused children herself, is working toward an educational leadership certificate at Cabrini College.

Church abbot Sifu Lu invited Ledgister to develop the school plan. Ledgister describes the school as technology-oriented with Kung Fu, targeting disadvantaged and behaviorial-issue youngsters.

“Kung Fu focuses their minds and strengthens their bodies,” she said.

If the school is approved, it could open as early as September with 65 students in kindergarten through grade 12 and eventually grow to 260 students.

The Voorhees application for Creative Studies Charter School includes plans for grades two through five in an arts-based program. If approved, it would join Regis Academy Charter School in accepting Voorhees students.

Regis Academy, one of four charter schools statewide to gain DOE approval earlier this fall, plans to locate in Cherry Hill but would serve students from Somerdale and Lawnside as well as Cherry Hill and Voorhees. That school, co-founded by Pastors Amir Khan and Calvin Brown of the Solid Rock Worship Center, has been the center of controversy and neighborhood opposition.

While the Cherry Hill School District is actively opposing the Regis Academy application, saying it would unnecessarily divert state funds from a high-performing district, the high-performing Voorhees district has had no official comment on charter schools serving Voorhees children.

Among the other applications is one for Willingboro College Prep Charter High School, which would join two other planned charter schools in the township if approved.

Its contact, Nicholle Anatol, is also helming the previously approved Willingboro Academy Charter School for younger students.

Among the four applications for urban Camden schools, City Invincible Charter School is affiliated with Foundations Inc., a Moorestown company that works with leaders and organizations to improve schools, transform after-school time and engage families and communities in the educational process.

[GeneChing]

Whole Elephant Charter School is different than the Shaolin Temple Charter School, but parallel.


City’s 1st Chinese charter weighed (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/city_st_chinese_charter_weighed_OTSAI7UsQ0GeP4AWKY YJrI)
By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter
Last Updated: 2:46 AM, August 7, 2012
Posted: 12:42 AM, August 7, 2012

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A proposed Queens charter school is planning to put acupuncture, martial arts and calligraphy on its East-meets-West educational menu — and to feed kids Chinese grub, to boot.

The Whole Elephant Charter School, which seeks to serve kids in kindergarten through grade 5 in Flushing — if approved to open in 2013 by the state Board of Regents — would be the city’s first Chinese dual-language charter.

Its founders say they want to go beyond rote learning to teach kids about the cultural arts and ancient traditions of China, going back 5,000 years.

This would be done by having students form one-on-one master-disciple relationships with teachers who are expert in certain subjects — such as computer science, Chinese medicine and chess.

Kids would also learn about the preparation and art of Chinese food — most enjoyably by eating it in the school cafeteria, alongside traditional public-school fare.

“The key to the success of education is actually to teach principles, principles of life,” said Dr. Lotus King Weiss, a former cancer researcher who opened an educational nonprofit in Flushing seven years ago.

“It’s holistic teaching,” she added. “The teacher is supposed to show the children how to be a good, successful human being.”

While the school would be open to any student in Flushing, it’s expected to draw heavily from the neighborhood’s Chinese immigrant population.

The proposed school was included among 26 charter applications submitted to the Board of Regents last month — including 15 in New York City.

Other applications include four Brooklyn high schools run by the nonprofit New Visions for Public Schools and a Manhattan performing-arts high school run by the former principal of the Manhattan Theatre Lab HS, which is to be shuttered.

Another application seeks to replicate the novel New American Academy in Brooklyn — which has 60 students in a large classroom with four teachers — as a charter.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com