Today, at the State Board of Education: Charter Schools Committee meeting, The Kindezi School was formally recommended by the Department of Education for approval. Last year, their recommendation to the Board of Education was for denial which caused us to retract our petition rather than wait to be formally denied. It was a terrible disappointment to the founders, parents, teachers, and community members. But now it makes this moment feel that much sweeter!

After our denial we worked closely with the department to make sure we were making the changes they wanted to see. Most significantly, we changed our administrative model so that it can no longer be called a Teacher Professional Partnership. However, we held true to our original academic plan of six students per class, Socratic tutorial, differentiation, and an Arts/Leadership focus. Our hard work to revise the petition has paid off.

In many ways, the denial was a blessing in disguise. With a school model this ambitious, it pays to have an extra year to hammer out details rather than be rushed into a hasty opening. We are finding new amazing teachers to help us kick this off. In many ways, our petition was improved by this round of revisions. Also, we are very likely to end up with a more suitable and affordable facility because of the delay (more on that soon!).

We are very hopeful and excited about the future of Kindezi. There does not appear to be anything standing in our way. The Board of Education will approve us next month and we will be well on our way to finally opening the Kindezi School.