I had heard a few rumors that Prestige Academy wouldn’t make it past this school year based on their academics and enrollment, but could it be even sooner than that? Tonight, a commenter posted the following on my “Ask Dr. Godowsky a question post” from a few weeks ago:
Good evening sir, My son is in the eight grade at Prestige Academy and I look forward to him graduating from there. He’s been there since five grade. I feel if the State wants to close at school they should at least wait til the end of the school year instead of the middle. Think about the students that have worked hard to achieve their goals and look forward to graduating from a school they been at since 5th grade. This is the only all boy school in DE. Mr. Greenlea didn’t even get a chance to prove what he can do because of factors that have spread structured before he even came there. So as a parent that works with children as well, I say to you sir please look at the situation and over turn the matter of closing Prestige Academy at the end of year and give Prestige Academy the same time as Academy of Dover til next year. I welcome you and I thank you for listening.(REMEMBER ITS ABOUT THE CHILDREN)
I am very curious about this. Will the next State Board of Education meeting have some type of announcement? For their Smarter Balanced scores, the top proficiency ratings were both in 5th grade with 21% for ELA and 18% for math. But the DOE has already stated they won’t judge schools based on the Smarter Balanced Assessment scores from the 2014-2015 school year. So what could possibly cause them to shut down in January? It could be their enrollment. If the numbers are below 80% they will go on formal review very fast. They are already on probation. If they closed in the middle of the school year that would have to be a decision by the school board unless something very serious is going on there.
If anyone knows anything about this, or if any letter has gone home to parents, please let me know! All the Delaware charters should have their performance frameworks coming out in the next couple weeks as well so perhaps something came up with that. This school fell off my radar, but it looks like something could be going on there.
The Season Of Myths 
Timing of the formal review process is intended to make any decisions for closure while the choice window is still open for the next year. A January decision does not mean the school closes at that moment. It would throw the entire system into disarray to close mid-year. Previously decisions were made after the choice window closed which made no sense.
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