Volume 1 No. 1
Our mission at Bay Mills Community College Charter Schools Office (BMCC/CSO) is to support and help ensure a quality education for urban, minority and poor children.
 
Our top priority is providing our academy boards with pertinent information and training so that they are able to make informed decisions that are in the best interest of the students that attend their academies. However, sometimes we find ourselves in situations where the best choice for our students is not always the easiest to make. This past spring, we presented University Yes Academy in Detroit with a notice that we would revoke their charter unless significant improvements were made to change their current path. The school was in the bottom 5% academically with few signs of improvement. The management at the University YES Academy seemed to be more interested in adding more students to school rather than improving their education.
 
The school board, in response to the NIR, dismissed the current management firm and contracted with a management firm with a record of success in Detroit, New Paradigm for Education, to operate the school. After much discussions and consideration, New Paradigm recommended to the Board to eliminate grades 9-12 at the University YES Academy in Detroit, with K-8 remaining open.  This decision came after Bay Mills and the management in charge of the YES Academy explored all other options available that involved keeping the high school open. It was determined that due to low performance and serious overcrowding, which forced students to be bussed to nearby museums for classes, that the best option to ensure student success would be to close the high school and relocate students to different schools in the area.
 
Once it was announced that the High School was closing, an enrollment fair that included 11 area high schools was held to help relocate students. New Paradigm and BMCC/CSO are currently monitoring the senior class in order to ensure their success and continuation of their education and as of right now 98.72% of the senior class has been placed or applied to a new school, with one student from that class on a waiting list at different schools in the area. Overall, 340 of the 344 high school students had been placed in a new school by mid-September. The other four students were in the process of transferring to other high schools. 

The Benton Harbor DREAM Academy was another case in which BMCC/CSO could not guarantee the students a quality education that they deserved.
 
Bay Mills Community College Charter School Office authorized the DREAM Academy when Benton Harbor was going through very difficult times, and although everyone worked tirelessly with the management firm we could not bring it up to the standard that our students needed to achieve a quality education. Despite the fact that the academy made strides in improving the school culture, increasing retention and graduation rates, the academic achievement was still below the state's average.
 
Now the DREAM Academy is authorized by the Benton Harbor Public School District and BMCC/CSO hopes that they are able to give the students the educational support that they need in order to succeed. 


Crescent Academy opened in the fall of 2004 in Southfield with a total of over 200 students K-5th grade. By the end of the second year enrollment dropped to just over 100 students.
 
BMCC/CSO thought it best to release the school board from their duties for failure to uphold their responsibilities as a charter school board. BMCC/CSO also terminated the educational management operator (EMO) of this school due to financial malfeasance. At this point, the school was on the verge of closing.
 
Fast-forward to today, Crescent Academy is in its 11th school year and has five campuses with a total enrollment of 1,200 students serving PreK-12th grade with a waiting list. The dramatic rebound of Crescent Academy is due largely to a new school board that made tough decisions, enlisted the framework of "Leithwood and Riehl" core practices, the educational expertise of CS Partners (EMO) and the strong and creative leadership team of the school. 

Crescent Academy built collaborative processes by empowering the staff and teachers with opportunities to participate in the decision-making process, modifying the organizational structure of the school, and making the necessary adjustments to ensure a healthy allocation of resources. 

Crescent Academy also created a 3-5 year enrollment and retention plan to ensure 75-80% student retention.  And they hired a curriculum and assessment specialist to focus specifically on helping kids close an achievement gaps. Through taking these steps and the support of BMCC/CSO, Crescent Academy became "The Little School that Could". 
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About Bay Mills Community College Charter Schools
Bay Mills Community College began authorizing charter schools in the year 2000 and now authorizes 42 schools serving approximately 22,000 students. Fall 2015: 22,729 and Spring 2016: 22,257
 
Our Mission: To ensure a quality education for urban, minority, and/or poor children by improving and expanding educational opportunities through innovative oversight methods. To provide academy boards with the necessary support and training so that they may make educated decisions that are in the best interest of the students that attend their academies.