Application and Enrollment Process

REALM Charter school will establish an annual recruiting and admissions cycle, which shall include reasonable time for all of the following: (1) outreach and marketing, (2) orientation sessions for students and parents, (3) an admissions application period, (4) an admissions lottery, if necessary, and (5) enrollment. The school may fill vacancies or openings that become available after this process using either a waiting list or any other non-discriminatory process.

REALM Charter School will develop a standardized application form required of all prospective students. Included with the application form will be an information sheet detailing the educational philosophy, discipline policy, and parent participation plan of REALM Charter School. Parents/legal guardians must sign the application form and will be encouraged to sign the information sheet signifying that they agree to sign a binding contract to abide by those policies should their child be admitted to the school.

Timeline for Second Year of Operation

Applications for admission will be made available in December 2011 and will be due by March 2, 2012. The school will hold at least three parent information meetings between December and March so parents can learn more about the school before they apply. If REALM has not reached a minimum of 100 applications, all who have applied prior to March 2. 2012 will be offered acceptance letters. Families will have until March 23, 2012 to return the Commitment to Enroll form.

If 100 students have not committed to enroll, REALM may implement a second round of admissions until they have reached that number—a “rolling” admissions. Families that apply during that period will be admitted on a first come, first serve basis.

Timeline for Subsequent Years of Operation

Applications for admission will be made available in December of the previous year and will be due by the first Friday of March. The school will hold at least three parent information meetings between November and March so parents can learn more about the school before they apply.

The Lottery and Priority Admissions

If the number of applications for admission to a grade exceeds the number of available slots in that grade, the spaces for that grade will be filled by random lottery. This lottery will be held in a public setting. Drawings will be held on a grade by grade basis to fill the available slots per grade. All applicants to a grade will have their name randomly drawn. Those students who have their name drawn after the admission slots to that grade are filled will be placed on an admissions waiting list for that grade in the order that they were drawn.

This lottery will take place during the last week of March. The lottery will be conducted with the following admissions preferences being given in the following order:

1)    students currently attending the school;

2)    siblings of students already attending the school;

3)    children of teachers and founders. This preference will be applied to no more than 10% of student slots. A founder is defined as any parent involved in the founding of the school that volunteered 200 hours toward the creation of the school. Families who have volunteered between 75 and 199 hours may qualify as founders if the available founder spots (as defined by the 10% figure) have not been filled. In this case, we will admit, in descending order, those families who have volunteered the highest number of hours under 200;

4)    students residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the BUSD (as required in education code section 47605(d)(2)(b)); and

5)    all others;

After the lottery, families will receive their official enrollment forms and will be informed of the enrollment process detailed below. If the number of applications does not exceed the number of spaces available in each grade in the school there will be no lottery, and all students who submitted complete contact information forms will be enrolled.

The Enrollment Process

Each spring, after the lottery for admission, the school will hold orientation meetings for parents. During orientation meetings, staff and parents will review school policies and be asked to sign the family-school agreement and official enrollment papers. The enrollment packet also includes information regarding student immunization records and a list of emergency contacts. Parents will also, at this meeting, have the opportunity to sign up with a parent committee through which they can donate volunteer hours to the school. Parents and legal guardians will also receive a family-student handbook during this orientation. This is a mandatory meeting. Parents who cannot make an orientation meeting must make a personal appointment with the charter school’s Director or designee to address the information covered in the meeting.

The Charter School will implement a student recruitment strategy that includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the following elements or strategies to ensure a racial and ethnic balance that is reflective of the BUSD:

1)    An enrollment process that is scheduled and adopted to include a timeline that allows for a broad-based recruiting and application process

2)    The development of promotional and informal material that appeals to all major racial and ethnic groups represented in the district; including materials in languages other than English to appeal to limited English proficient populations

3)    Targeted meetings in multiple communities to reach prospective students and parents

4)    The distribution of promotional and informational materials to a broad variety of community groups and agencies that serve the various racial, ethnic, and interest groups represented in the district

5)    A random selection process will be used each school year and a ranked waiting list created to fill openings as they occur.

Because we seek a targeted student population whose families may not be reachable by traditional means, REALM plans to utilize direct outreach strategies such as direct mailing and community and home meetings targeted in specific communities in the Berkeley area. REALM also may use bus stop signage and church and community group bulletin boards in an effort to tailor outreach efforts to a diversity of students/families.