Portland charter school accepting applications for the fall

John Jaques, founder and executive director of the proposed Baxter Academy for Technology and Science, announced today that his organization is accepting applications for enrollment for the fall semester.

(For background in the form of previous stories about Baxter Academy, click here and here.)

This 20,000-square-foot building at 54 York St. in Portland will become the new home of Baxter Academy if the organization is approved to become the state's first charter school.

Baxter Academy would be Portland’s first charter school, only recently legalized by the state legislature, and has been in the works for much longer than other prospective charters. However, starting classes in September of 2012 has not always been a foregone conclusion, as a rigorous state approval process needed to be put in place and then successfully navigated.

In fact, a fall start for Baxter Academy is still not a foregone conclusion, but Jaques remains optimistic. Here’s a statement by Jaques issued today on the topic:

We are very pleased to announce that student registration is now open and we have applications available on our web site. We are looking for 80 freshmen and 80 sophomores for the 2012-2013 school year. While Baxter Academy is accepting applications now, and expects to open as a charter school in September, our charter application is still pending. The charter commission made it clear that it is possible that a charter may not be issued in time for Baxter Academy to open in September. In such case, all applicants and their sending school districts, will be notified within 24 hours.

Here’s a little bit more about Baxter Academy as included in an organization announcement today:

Maine charter school legislation has placed a cap on the number of applicants that can be accepted form any one school administrative unit (SAU). For example we can enroll no more than 103 students from Portland, and 48 from South Portland. The number of applicants, and the number of spots remaining from each SAU will be posted on the schools web site weekly. (http://baxteracademy.org). The Baxter Academy registration window will run from June 1 to July 31, 2012. On July 31, 2012, registration will be closed, a blind lottery will be held on August 1, 2012 if registrations exceed the number of openings. A blind lottery is a random selection process in which all applicants will have equal chance of being selected. The first day of school for students will be Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. Admission will be open to any student in Maine, however Baxter Academy will be a non-residential school.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.