CCA - Frequently Asked Questions

Where are you located?
Cesar Chavez Academy – Central is near the heart of Colorado Springs, at 1131 N. Union, Colorado Springs, 80909

Do we offer transportation?
CCA – Colorado Springs provides limited transportation for those families that have no other means to bring their children to our schools. To further assist families we offer a before-school program that starts at 6:30 am.

Is there a program available for students with special needs?
Yes. A Special Education Coordinator serving the K-8 instructional program oversees a full inclusion special education program for each site. There is an on-staff school psychologist and speech pathologist. All students assessed as special needs students attend regular education classes; there are no designated special education classes (classes comprised of only special education students). The full inclusion model at CCA – Colorado Springs schools is defined as services administered to special needs students via differentiated instruction at the classroom level. All special education students are serviced within the context of their regular education environment and multiple forms of support are provided for students with specific needs. For example - tutoring for math, reading, and writing is available to any student requiring additional support.

Do I have to live in the district?
You do not need to live in D11 to attend our school.

Is the school a D11 charter school?
CCA-Colorado Springs is chartered through the Colorado State Institute of Charter Schools (CSI). CSI is part of the Colorado Department of Education and acts as our authorizer and district. In Colorado a school may be chartered through a district or through the Colorado Department of Education. Although our school is geographically located within the D11 area we report to CSI.

Do we offer a before and / or after-school program?
Our before school program starts at 6:30 AM and our after-school program

Why do we have a longer school day and school year?
Our goal is to ensure that every student has access to a college preparatory elementary program. We define access as providing the necessary supports that will adequately prepare our students to take accelerated courses once they attend high school thus paving the way to college admission and graduation. Accomplishing this goal without the loss of art, music, and other necessary learning experiences requires an extended day and year.

Do we offer both half-day and full-day kindergarten?
We will offer both a full-day and half-day kindergarten program for our 2008-2009 school year.

Is there a preschool program?
Currently, there is no preschool program. However, we are working on developing a preschool and early kindergarten program to open for the 2009-2010 school year.

What grades will we offer for the 2008-2009 school year?
Both CCA-Central and CCA-North, our new campus that will open next year, will offer grades K-7.

Is there a uniform policy?
All students at CCA are required to wear uniforms. Students wear a polo shirt with a logo and navy slacks on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Every Wednesday is a formal day, boys wear collared shirts with a sweater vest and girls wear a plaid jumper with a Peter Pan shirt.

 

• Charter schools are free, public schools of choice
• Charter schools spend, on average, 15% of their per pupil operating dollars to pay for their facilities. School districts finance their facilities using property tax, mill levies and taxypayer-backed bonds. Charter schools do not receive a proportionate share of these monies. As a result, money comes out of the charter school classroom to pay for buildings.
• “Over time, charter schools have performed as well or slightly better than non-charter schools in raising student test scores in 4th, 8th and 10th grades” www.ppionline.org/
• Public charter school students must take the CSAP. Public charter schools are subject to the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act
• Public charter school teachers must be “highly qualified” under NCLB
• Public charter schools serve a broad diversity of students including low-income, ethnic minorities and students with disabilities or other special needs
• Currently, there are 56,458 students attending the 141 charter schools in Colorado. This amounts to 7.03% of K-12 public school enrollment in Colorado.
• Forty-seven school districts have approved charter schools, including 2 online charter schools
• There is demand for more charter schools. Over 25,000 students are on waitlists to enter charter schools
• A 2003 survey of Colorado voters found that Coloradoans overwhelmingly support public school choice (83%), but less than half of the respondents were able to pass a ‘true-false’ quiz about charter schools indicating that most Coloradoans have some misconceptions about charter schools.