The Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents recently voted to enter a five-year contract with new Ypsilanti-based charter school Global Tech Academy.
Eastern Michigan University's campus. The college's Board of Regents recently authorized three new charter schools to be overseen by EMU's Charter Schools Office.
AnnArbor.com file photo
Global Tech Academy is the second charter that EMU has authorized in Washtenaw County. It will be at 1715 Forest St. and will offer grades K-5 to about 250 students.
The Board of Regents authorized two more charters last week with schools opening in the Detroit Public Schools district this fall. All three contracts will expire on June 20, 2018.
These are the first charter schools the university has authorized since 1999, four years after it began opening charter schools.
"My office, in conjunction with the executive leadership team and the Board of Regents, completed an extensive review process before selecting these schools," Malverne Winborne, director of the Charter Schools Office at Eastern, said in a news release.
Global Tech Academy and the two Detroit schools, the Detroit Public Safety Academy and the Boggs Education Center, were selected from 21 initial applicants that appealed to EMU for charters.
"We have worked hard to bring on-line public school academies that would introduce innovation to K-12 education, with a strong focus on the at-risk communities," Winborne said.
The Board of Regents first empowered the Charter Schools Office in October to negotiate with the organizations interested in opening the schools to develop the charter contracts. The three new public school academies authorized by the university last week will make 11 charter schools the EMU office now oversees in Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw and Genesee counties.
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.