Park Place Blog

The attached letter is from Philip Parr, an Imagine Schools representative.

Dear East End Community Resident:

A meeting will be held on Thursday, March 16th at 7:30 p.m. in the Wilkins School Community Center at Charleston Street at South Braddock Avenue in Regent Square for residents to learn more about a creative and exciting initiative to establish a K-8 Environmental Charter School for the community in the Regent Square neighborhood.

The intent of the proposed school is to help young people develop a love and respect for nature and the will to conserve and preserve it for future generations. The school will achieve this by using developmentally appropriate educational practices. The vision is to have eighth graders leave the school understanding the faces of the issues that impact global ecology. These are faces that you know well: poverty and wealth, sickness and health, and the impacts of decisions that people, cultures, and nations make.

The school intends to develop a resilient education program that finds ways to energize each student’s curiosity for learning in an environment where project learning, thinking, research and problem-solving are the norm. The vision is to develop partnerships with the broadest cross-section of area ecology organizations as possible to help make this kind of learning environment a reality.

The proposed charter school application is being developed by a coalition of community and environmental group leaders, and Imagine Schools, a national education management organization.

At the meeting, we would like to provide you with a brief overview of the project, information about Imagine Schools ( http://www.imagineschools.com ), details about how you may support the charter application if you so choose, and an opportunity for you to ask your questions.

I hope you will be able to attend this important neighborhood gathering. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to others who might be interested in attending the meeting.