GALVESTON — Some public school students will be moved to other island elementary schools in the fall to make room for a nationally recognized charter school opening in Rosenberg Elementary School.
Trustees gave permission Wednesday to the leaders of the Knowledge is Power Program — or KIPP — to operate the school in one side of the elementary school.
In its first year, KIPP Coastal Village is expecting 340 students in prekindergarten through first grade. All students in those grades who are zoned to Rosenberg Elementary School, 721 10th St., and choose not to attend KIPP, will be moved to other elementary schools.
Rosenberg Elementary School students in second through fourth grade will remain on the campus in the fall.
KIPP Coastal Village officials have spent the past six weeks recruiting students. So far, school leaders have enrolled 123 students, some who were enrolled in area private and charter schools, Principal Lynne Barnes said.
Some of those students attend other school districts, including Santa Fe, Hitchcock and Texas City, Barnes said.
District officials have said they hoped KIPP Coastal Village would attract students to the embattled public school district, which was facing declining enrollment before Hurricane Ike slammed ashore Sept. 13, displacing 2,000 students.
Galveston public school district trustees have denied requests by the leaders of Ambassadors Preparatory Academy and Odyssey Academy to lease or sell empty buildings in the past. Trustees wanted those schools to become part of the district so the district could get state funding for those charter students. The charter school officials refused, so Galveston public school district denied them buildings.
There are 66 KIPP schools across the nation, including 11 in the Houston area. The schools, which primarily recruit low-income minority students, offer their own curriculum, longer school days and some Saturday classes.
The program, founded in 1994, has gained national attention for its successes with public school students in Houston and, most recently, in New Orleans, where KIPP opened five schools after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.
KIPP Coastal Village plans to enroll 1,270 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade by fall 2013.
The district will provide KIPP with $8,461 per student in state funding in its first year, or an estimated $3 million, according to the contract.
Galveston public school district gets an average of $6,000 per student in state funding, Superintendent Lynne Cleveland said. The state gives the district additional funding for students who are low-income, minorities, have a limited proficiency in English or who are enrolled in special education, among other things.
The school is expecting 95 percent of its students will be low-income, meaning the school could pay for itself, Cleveland said. If KIPP Coastal Village enrolls students from outside the district who bring in additional state funding, the school could help the district’s troubled finances. So far, 80 percent of the enrolled students are low-income, Barnes said.
The district has the option at the end of the 2013-14 school year to terminate the contract with KIPP if students aren’t preforming as well on standardized tests as the students in regular classes, according to the contract.
