WELCOMING ALL

As we welcome students, families, and staff for the 2022-2023 academic year we want to bring attention to the document entitled Minnesota’s Chartered Public Schools: Welcoming All. The document was developed through a consultative process with member schools in 2015 and revised earlier this year by the MACS Board of Directors.

The essential point of the document is to remind every charter school of its responsibility to provide equitable educational opportunities and promote diversity and inclusion in its student population while upholding the principle of public-school choice.

This requires that the school community adopt a mindfulness of equity and a commitment to action to provide every student with the opportunity to fulfill their academic, civic, and economic potential.

Being welcoming and respectful of the diversity of students, and ensuring equitable opportunities for all students requires that board members, administrators, faculty, and staff look at attitudes, policies, and practices so that students feel welcomed, included, and supported.

Assessing our individual and organizational attitudes, policies, and practices in an honest and ongoing manner is what leadership is about – anything less is doing a disservice to our students.

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Minnesota’s Charter School Story @ 30

June 4, 2021 was the 30th Anniversary of Minnesota’s first in the nation chartered public school law. Over the past year we have been telling the story of Minnesota’s charter school law through a series entitled: Celebrating Chartering @ 30 – Minnesota’s Story.

The series begins the story when chartered public schools were an idea written on a napkin, through the legislative process to enact the law, and how the experience of implementing the law has changed and refined chartering over the years. The story continues so we encourage you to follow the series.

EVERYTHING HAS A SOURCE

Everything has a source. 

The source of the mighty Mississippi River is the crystal clear waters of Lake Itasca as the water flows over a row of stones.

The Source of Chartered Public Schools is found in the innovation goals articulated in Minnesota’s first in the nation charter school law.

Whether it be a river or ideals codified in law, it is the source of things that provide inspiration, opportunities, and challenges. The source of things provide a beginning place for what can become over time and space. We know what the waters of the Mississippi River becomes over space and time. What chartered public schools become over time is still a work in progress.

Today, and everyday, we encourage everyone in our chartered public schools to look back at the goals in Minnesota’s charter school law and remember that INNOVATION is the source for the existence of chartered public schools.