HOWARD T. ENNIS SCHOOL WILL BE HOME TO THE BRYAN ALLEN STEVENSON SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE charter IN FALL 2023

Low enrollment forces new Sussex charter to delay opening

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

HOWARD T. ENNIS SCHOOL WILL BE HOME TO THE BRYAN ALLEN STEVENSON SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE charter IN FALL 2023.

HOWARD T. ENNIS SCHOOL WILL BE HOME TO THE BRYAN ALLEN STEVENSON SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE CHARTER IN FALL 2023.

A Sussex County charter school that was supposed to open its doors this fall will wait another year to open.

The Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence, first proposed in 2017, received state approval on May 5 to open in Georgetown for the 2023-2024 school year.

However, the school’s enrollment numbers did not meet the state’s requirements.

All charter schools must have 80% of their enrollment by April 1 to operate the following academic year.

BASSE, as organizers call the school, has 124 students enrolled for its inaugural year. That is 76 students short of 200 students, the number authorized by the state for the school to operate.

School officials said in a statement that the opening will be delayed and the building would open for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Secretary of Education Mark Holodick approved the school’s request to open a year later.

“Over 120 families want their children to become BASSE students this fall,” said Chantalle Ashford, BASSE’s founding school leader, in the statement. “Though we hate to defer our dream of providing a new school option to the students in Sussex county, we are looking forward to opening in Fall 2024.” 

RELATED: Bryan Allen Stevenson charter wins state OK; will open in 2023

Georgetown’s new charter

The school’s budget can be found here. It’ll receive $1,896,707 from the state in its first year of operation, $2,578,165 in its second, $3,267,320 in its third and $4,059,532 in its fourth.  

“We’re rolling right along and getting the word out. People were incredibly supportive and enthusiastic. But it takes time, and we just ran out of it,” said Betsy Renzo, vice board chair of the school, in the statement.

More than $1 million in grants and individual donations has helped start the school, with most of that coming from the Longwood Foundation and Welfare Foundation.

The charter will start by serving grades six and seven, with 125 students in each grade. 

It hopes to add a grade and 100 new students each year until it offers grades six through 12. 

The school is named after the nationally acclaimed social justice activist and lawyer born in Milton who has devoted his career to freeing wrongly convicted death row inmates. 

To learn more about the Bryan Allen Stevenson school, go here.

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