The students were helping clean out lockers. On a cool day last autumn, as educators all over the city were opening boxes of proficiency tests to give to their students, Fritsche Middle School Principal Bill Andrekopoulos did something that previously would have been considered unthinkable. As the first MPS school to convert to a charter school, Fritsche assumed the role of guinea pig for the district's efforts to shift its focus, power and energy to its individual schools. That it hasn't always worked that way was evident in how quickly word of Fritsche's act of defiance spread through the district. Within weeks, Andrekopoulos and his staff were practically folk heroes among teachers and principals across the city.
Charter schools are public schools that operate independently of traditional public school systems.
They have received support from President Clinton and his administration. At a charter, the buck stops with the principal, staff and parents - not with the superintendent and the central office administration. If Fritsche was paying for the tests, Andrekopoulos argued, it wanted something better. The testing anecdote was one of many examples last year in which Fritsche found itself having to remind people about its new relationship with the central office. Each year, MPS releases an accountability report on how well its schools are doing.