City Council Votes to Support New College Park Charter School

The College Park city council voted unanimously this week to support the application of the College Park City-University Partnership to establish the College Park Academy Charter School, which would serve as many as 600 students in seventh through twelfth grades.

This college preparatory charter school would offer students the opportunity to earn up to 60 college credits and must be approved by the Prince George's County Board of Education before plans can be finalized, reported the Diamondback.

"The vision has grown out of years of discussion in the College Park community about the need for high rigor middle school and high school options," said Councilmemeber Denise Mitchell (Dist. 4.)

"We applaud this city-university partnership," she said.

If enrollment reaches capacity, Prince George's County students would have to apply to a lottery to gain admission to the proposed charter school, as they do for all other charter schools in the county, according the UMd. Education Dean Donna Wiseman, who played an important roll in the charter school planning team, according to the Diamondback.

There has been no decision about the location of the school, but - the former location of the 94the Aero Squadron Restaurant, an empty office building on Berwyn House Road, and the former Calvert Road School.

The charter school application is scheduled to be submitted to the Board of Education this month.

Read the full story here on the Diamondback.