Propel Schools received a generous $1.1 million grant this week from the federal government's Charter School Grants Program of the Dept. of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement, one of only a dozen charter schools in the country to land the funding.
The grant will cover the next two years, while a follow-up grant of $2.3 million is likely for the three years after that, helping to nearly double its offerings from 6 to 11 charter public schools in the Pittsburgh area.
"We have another 2,000 students who would like to go to a Propel school," reports Executive Director Jeremy Resnick. With schools already in Turtle Creek, Homestead, McKeesport, Montour, Munhall and Braddock Hills, Resnick isn't ready to say what districts his organization will target for future facilities. But he's certain Propel will continue "providing high-performing school choices where communities don't have access to them."
The organization says it now has the fastest-growing and largest group of charter schools in the state, and claims the top achievement level among public schools in districts that also serve the highest poverty areas.
"It's validation for what we've done from a national source," Resnick says. "It's great to have a Pittsburgh organization up there with the organizations that get written up in
The New York Times."
Writer:
Marty LevineSource: Jeremy Resnick, Propel Schools
Image courtesy of Propel Schools