DES MOINES, Iowa — Starting in the fall of 2023, Des Moines Public School students will have a new option when it comes to their school choices.
Horizon Science Academy Des Moines is set to open for the 2023-24 school year. The newly-approved charter school will initially serve kindergarten through third graders, gradually adding more grades in the coming years.
The school will work with Concept Schools, an Illinois-based charter school management group, which runs 31 charter schools across the country.
"Anybody in Des Moines public schools can enroll at HSA Des Moines," said Dr. Chris Murphy, chief strategic growth and communications officer for Concept Schools. "We historically served communities that had been underserved. About 85% of our student population across the board of 13,500 kids is African American or Hispanic. About 85 to 90% qualify for free-and-reduced lunch programs."
Murphy says those involved are still working to narrow down and select exactly where the school will be located. However, he says many of those sites are on the northwest side of the city. One site being considered is the old Franklin Junior High.
"My personal preference would be as close to the inner city as we can get it," said school sponsor and founder Roger Brooks. "Because that's, I think, where school choice could make a big difference in Des Moines."
Brooks and his wife Sunnie Richer are retired Des Moines business people with many years of sponsoring and volunteering in youth and education programs in the city.
The pair believes this academic model Horizon Science Academy Des Moines will provide will play a vital role in boosting student achievement.
"From a professional standpoint, if you take a look at where the jobs are, I think everybody's projecting that they're going to continue to be in the STEM areas," said Richer. "Even things like welding and things like manufacturing, those jobs are just begging."
"Concept Schools has basically said that their experience is that their students in one year of classroom activities will make 1.2 years of progress on the reading and math skills," Brooks added.
The school will be open to any students within the Des Moines Public Schools boundary.
The public school is tuition-free and initial enrollment will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
Organizers say if interest is high, a lottery system would be introduced to keep the process transparent and fair.
"I worked in the STEM area within most of my career, and it's never easy to recruit software engineers or technical people," Richer said. "When you took a take a look at minorities, those are few and far between as well. And so we view this as a huge vacuum to fill."