State OKs All-Boys Charter School

Six years after the local Board of Education turned him down, Rev. Boise Kimber took his quest for permission to create an all-boys charter school to the state — and succeeded.

The State Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to grant an initial certification for a state charter for a Kimber-organized group to form the Edmonds Cofield Preparatory Academy for Young Men in New Haven.

At the same meeting, the board renewed the charter of Elm City Montessori School for another four years. 

A proposal for another new Hebrew language-based New Haven charter school did not make it to the meeting for a vote because it failed to earn enough points in a preliminary state Department of Education committee review. The head of that effort told the Independent by email that his school intends to re-apply the next time the state solicits applications. (Click here to read a previous story about that proposal.)

Kimber’s proposed school aims to target the challenges facing young males who are failing academically and socially in New Haven through ​“a positive school culture that builds self-management, reflection, problem-solving, and relationship building skills.” (Read its application here.)

Since the New Haven Board of Education rejected a city-chartered version of the proposed school in 2017, Kimber told the Independent Thursday, the problems facing young males, especially young Black males, have worsened. (The school is open to students of all races.)

“This is an opportunity to tailor curriculum, where these young men can buy in,” Kimber said of the updated state-chartered version of the school.

Kimber said he aims to open the school in the fall of 2024 with an initial class of 75 fifth-graders. He projects expanding to 375 fifth-through-eighth graders by a fifth year, and eventually adding high schoolers.

The school — named after two late New Haven Black community leaders, the Revs. Edwin Edmonds and Curtis Cofield — does not yet have a location set. Kimber said his group has looked at four potential sites in New Haven.

Now that he has obtained the initial certificate to operate a charter, which lasts three years (renewable for another five), Kimber needs to raise a combination of private donations and state legislative-approved dollars to open the school. The General Assembly’s Education and Appropriations Committees must also ​“deem” the proposed school ​“effective,” according to state education department spokesperson Eric Scoville.

Kimber said Thursday he does not yet have a specific fundraising target. He said he raised $50,000 to hire a consultant to help prepare the state application. ​“I’m not allowed to give the names of the institutions nor person who contributed,” he said. The state education department staff review reports that the group aims to obtain a $400,000 Charter School Startup grant and $250,000 in private contributions for the launch.

The school will hire an experienced principal and staff, Kimber said. 

“I don’t know what my role is going to be. I am not an educator. I pride myself on being an organizer. We will allow the professional educators to run the school,” Kimber said. ​“I just have to make sure we raise the money necessary.”

Rounded Up

The state Board of Ed requires applicants for new charters to score 38 points out of 57 in the preliminary staff review in order to advance to a board meeting for approval. Kimber’s proposal earned 37.55 points; it was rounded up to 38. (Read the staff review here.)

Before Wednesday’s vote, state board member Elwood Exley pressed Kimber and two board members accompanying him — retired New Haven high school principals Larry Conaway and Leroy Williams — about the school’s rationale. 

“It looks as if they didn’t really demonstrate why the need an all-male school,” Exley stated, referencing the staff report. He also cited staff concerns that the application didn’t offer ​“evidence of the model and achievement.”

Two New Haveners who sit on the state board, Chair Karen DuBois-Walton and member Erik Clemons, responded in defense of the project.

Clemons spoke of being raised by a single mother and ​“hating” school but ​“lov[ing] to learn.”

“I heard a lot today about mothers. Not a lot about fathers. I knew and always thought about the Black men in front of me. To your questions, which are very technical questions, there is not an adaptive issue as well. These men are trying to address an adaptive issue. The males need the most help. The males need the most help,” Clemons said.

“As a mother of two young African-American men, I would have loved to have had an opportunity for them to be educated in a space that was going to love on them and educate them as young black men,” DuBois-Walton said.

“The rationale is that males, particularly Black and brown males, are not getting the proper education that they need. They lead in discipline. They lead in special education. What we’re trying to do is sell hope to some fifth graders and make the city a better place. It’s going to be make the city and the world a better place,” Conaway told the state board members.

Supporters noted that dozens of community members spoke out in favor the proposed school at a New Haven public meeting. Leaders including Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, New Haven Board of Education member Darnell Goldson and former Mayor Toni Harp sent letters of support as well to the state board.

It was noted at the meeting that New Haven schools Superintendent Iline Tracey submitted a letter opposing approval of the certificate, arguing that the growth of charters is unfairly costing her district dollars and students.

“She’s not going to be around anymore,” a state board member responded, noting that Tracey is retiring at the end of this academic year.