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100 Chester Community Charter School Parents Present 1,160 Signed Petitions at Governor Corbett’s Office

Chester, PA (PRWEB) January 24, 2012

One hundred parents of students of the Chester Community Charter School, here, today accompanied the school’s CEO, Dr. David Clark, on a visit to a public hearing of the Pennsylvania State Senate Education Committee, in Harrisburg, where the subject of school funding in the city of Chester was being discussed.

Prior to attending the Senate hearing, the parents visited the office of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, where they presented 1,160 petitions signed by the school’s parents, to the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff Todd Shamash. In the petition, the parents urged the Governor to “fund our public charter school as you are required to do by the Charter Law.” The final sentence in the document read: “Please, Governor Corbett, don’t abandon us.”

In recent weeks, the Chester Community Charter School has filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Education (Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Docket Number: 632 MD 2011), claiming that the Commonwealth owes the school, now, nearly $ 7 million, and that it has been ‘severely delinquent’ in its Charter School Law-mandated payments to the school.

Citing CCCS’s success in having its students accepted into top-quality secondary schools and prestigious universities, its nine state-of-the-art school buildings and its One Laptop Per Child program, Clark, at a news briefing on the steps of the Capitol Building, said that the state’s lack of timely payments, “directly affects our ability to pay the salaries of our teachers and administrators, and to pay our school’s vendors. Such a condition, if continued, threatens the continued existence of Chester Community Charter School, and the futures of our children. And because we do educate the majority of the city’s K-8th graders, it also directly threatens the futures of families in the city of Chester, as a whole.”

Clark also added that “We want to remind our elected officials that not only the students in our charter school, but those in the entire Chester-Upland School District are legally entitled to receive an education… and that nearly 7,000 Pennsylvania school children should not lose that legal right to an education, simply because they live in the City of Chester, simply because they live in a city wherein 36 percent of the residents live below the poverty level.”

About Chester Community Charter School

Chester Community Charter School opened its doors on September 9, 1998, serving 97 students from its modest four meeting rooms, in the lobby of the Howard Johnson Hotel. Since that time, the school has steadily grown to include more than 3,000 students. http://www.chestercommunitycharter.org.

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Ben Brake Appointed to Board of The Chester Fund

Chester, PA (PRWEB) January 8, 2009

Ben Brake has been appointed to the board of directors of The Chester Fund for Education and the Arts, a not-for-profit organization that provides financial support to the Chester Upland School of the Arts, a new public arts magnet that is privately assisted in the city of Chester, Pennsylvania. Along with his board appointment, Brake will co-chair The Chester Fund’s development committee. This announcement is significant because Brake will help raise funds to sustain the school, which is located in one of America’s neediest school districts.

The Chester Upland School of the Arts opened in September and is providing excellence in education for the young residents Chester. For several decades, the city of Chester has struggled with the loss of industry, an eroding tax base, and a population that has decreased by almost 50% since 1950. According to 2000 census records, the per capita income in the City of Chester is $ 13,052. For the 2007-08 academic year, 4,184 children were enrolled in Chester Upland School District public schools: 3,312 or 80% were from families that met Federal poverty guidelines. A total of 768 children were enrolled in grades Pre-K through 2nd, the grades that the Chester Upland School of the Arts currently serves: 749, or 98%, were from families that met Federal poverty guidelines. The school is a model for the American education system, combining public and private sector resources to provide an education that will allow its students to ultimately compete at the best universities nationwide. The Chester Upland School of the Arts currently serves pre-school through second grade and will use the funds to expand by one additional grade each year.

“We are thrilled to have Ben on the board for the Chester School,” said John Alston, founder of The Chester Fund. “Ben brings not only business and financial expertise, but a true, deep concern and understanding for the students and goals of this school.”

“This is a winning cause, and it’s working because the public and private sectors have banded together to support beautiful children in a struggling school district.” said Ben Brake, board member. “The Chester Upland School of the Arts is producing citizens who can repair their community and ultimately, repair the world. Investing in The Chester Fund enables the school to continue making intellectual progress amongst talented children and nurture imagination.”

Brake has 20 years of experience in banking and presently serves as co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Epic Research, LLC, a financial services advisory and marketing firm. Brake is responsible for the strategy and execution of all of Epic’s marketing programs. Most recently, Mr. Brake was the CMO for Juniper Financial/Barclaycard US, where he served on the bank’s board of directors as a founding member of the management team.

Brake holds an MBA from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary. He also serves on the board of Smarter Agent (http://www.smarteragent.com), a private company located in Camden, NJ.

About The Chester Upland School of the Arts

The Chester Upland School of the Arts opened its doors to 200 students on Sept. 4, offering a pre-kindergarten through second grade education. The school fulfils a dream by John Alston, a Swarthmore College music professor and Founder/Music Director of the one hundred voice Chester Children’s Chorus, who organized a non-profit foundation to bring an arts school to Chester. The school’s curriculum combines rigorous academic expectations with arts integration (music, dance, and art), creating a learning environment that fosters intellectual achievement and critical thinking, creativity, and artistic excellence.

In July of 2007 the Sunshine Lady Foundation, which is headed by Doris Buffett, the sister of philanthropist Warren Buffett, awarded The Chester Fund a $ 500,000 challenge grant. The Chester Upland School of the Arts is currently on the road to success, with the hopes of enrolling students through 8th grade by adding a grade each year. CUSA is operated as a public school in partnership with the not-for-profit Chester Fund for Education and the Arts.

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©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.