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Additional Background
This proposed site for the new facility is right next to WCSD’s Alice Smith Elementary School. We are very concerned that locating such a large charter facility directly next to an at-risk school like Alice Smith will have the effect of siphoning away students with the most engaged parents, leaving students with greater needs and fewer resources.
The North Valleys is already well-served by neighborhood public schools. Several new neighborhood public schools have been built in the area with help from WC-1 funds, which NSEA, WEA, and WESP strongly supported. WCSD operates 12 schools in the area, none of which are at maximum capacity. Given this, construction of a large charter school in the area would take students away from neighborhood public schools, hurting the district, schools, and ultimately the students who attend those schools.
Performance of neighborhood public schools in North Valleys was cited as a reason to approve the MANN application. However, according to the Nevada Department of Education accountability portal for 2022-23, only 30.9% MANN middle school students were proficient in ELA and even fewer, 26.9% scored proficient in math. We know that on the whole, when correcting for demographic difference, neighborhood public schools consistently outperform charter schools. The argument that MANN would serve North Valley students better than neighborhood public schools is wrong.
For years, NSEA has been asking for greater controls and oversight of charter schools. We have cautioned decision-makers about the rapid growth of charters, especially given the separate and unequal dynamics between charter schools and our traditional neighborhood public schools. Initially NSEA asked for a moratorium on new charters and then a cap on charter expansion. Instead, the charters were required to develop and implement a growth management plan. Despite that, Nevada has experienced a 46% growth in charter school slots in the last 5 years with no planning on the broader impact of these new schools. In that same time, enrollment in our district schools has declined.