Capital City Public Charter School

Our plan

The Capital City Public Charter School started with the idea to create a small public school in the inner city of Washington DC (Columbia Heights) offering schooling for Pre-K through eighth grade students. The founders, a group of D.C. Public School parents working with teachers and other education professionals, felt it was also important that the school be comprised of economically and ethnically diverse students, and that the school offer a learning environment emphasizing experiential education with a full arts curriculum and a "responsive classroom" social curriculum. Without the built-in assistance of a central district, the Capital City founders had to work through every aspect of starting their charter school. They had to create a 501(c)(3), raise capital, hire administration and faculty, develop curriculum, recruit students and their parents, and find temporary and then permanent space. After establishing themselves as a 501, the group decided to raise money from foundations as well as public donations, first to fund a temporary space and eventually to pay for a permanent school location.

What we did

In the fall of 2000, temporary space had been secured in a location above a CVS pharmacy in Columbia Heights. School began that fall with 136 students in grades Pre-K through fifth, and built up to their current enrollment by the 2003-2004 year. The school moved into their permanent space in the old Central Presbyterian Church for the 2005-2006 year. The school's budget of around $3 million comes mostly from the Washington DC public school per-pupil allotment and a facilities stipend, but is supplemented by parent contributions and other fundraising conducted by the school's board.