Charter Board Lifts Proposal to Revoke Imagine Southeast PCS' Charter

Contact: Audrey Williams  202-328-2748
[email protected]

Washington, D.C. — The DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) voted at its monthly meeting February 25 to lift the proposal to revoke the charter of Imagine Southeast Public Charter School (Imagine SE) and voted to approve a School Turnaround Plan and Agreement with PCSB. As part of the agreement, Imagine SE committed to an improvement plan to address its low academic performance as well as to serve only students up through grade six beginning next year.  If the school does not hit certain Performance Management Framework benchmarks in SY2012-13 and SY2013-14, it would transfer the school to a high performing operator or relinquish the charter, according to the plan.

The Imagine SE Board of Trustees created the plan and presented it to PCSB staff in response to PCSB’s proposal in January to revoke the charter.  “Based on the strength of the turnaround plan presented and the commitments made in the school’s agreement, we were persuaded that the school should be given an opportunity to make these changes to improve the school’s performance,” said incoming PCSB Board Chair John H. “Skip” McKoy. 

At a special meeting January 10, the PCSB voted to propose revocation of Imagine SE’s charter for failure to meet several of the goals and academic achievement expectations set forth in the school’s charter.  The review of the school’s charter was part of the five-year review of the school’s performance, as required by the School Reform Act.

Imagine Southeast PCS is located at 3100 Martin Luther King, Jr.  Avenue, SE in Ward 8 and has been operating since August 2008.   The school serves 605 students in Pre-K3 through the 7th grade.

About PCSB: The DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) is setting a national model for creating quality public school options through its rigorous review of new charter applications and effective oversight of charter school performance that is leading the transformation of public education in Washington, DC. PCSB currently oversees 57 public charter schools on 102 campuses serving 34,673 students living in every ward of the city. Learn more at www.dcpcsb.org.