Orange Grove – School Choice Success Story

I expressed in my introductory column that I’m a strong believer in free markets. When I visit my cell phone store, I receive first-class customer service, because it is well aware that dissatisfied customers can take their business elsewhere. Competition for consumer demand leads to innovation, lower prices and better service.
Why should K-12 education be different than any other category of products or services? All parents deserve the best possible opportunity to educate their children. Imagine if the government could mandate that you can only buy your groceries at one store. Would you have the choices of food products you wanted or be able to shop around for a better value? What kind of customer service would that grocery store provide if you had no other place to shop?
School Choice is a very important issue to me, and I only have to walk several blocks to see where it has had a great impact on West Ashley parents and students. I recently visited Orange Grove Elementary Charter School and walked away with a very positive opinion of how education can improve if schools have to compete for student enrollment.
Orange Grove Elementary Charter School is a public school available to all residents of Charleston County but must give enrollment priority to families in the Old Towne neighborhoods in West Ashley. It was rated as an “average” school in 2006 before being granted charter conversion status. Several years after becoming a charter school, Orange Grove achieved an Excellent rating and has maintained it ever since.
In 2006, Principal Larry DiCenzo had the vision to remove Orange Grove Elementary from the Charleston County School District bureaucracy and become an autonomous charter school. He sold that vision to the faculty and the parents, which voted by overwhelming majorities to convert to charter status.
When talented principals have autonomy and are not micro-managed by the school district bureaucracy, they have the ability to hire and fire faculty, purchase curriculum materials, innovate and create after-school programs which effectively meet the needs of their students. A good Principal who is given the opportunity to lead his or her school can become a game-changer for that school.
DiCenzo’s successor at Orange Grove is a model for what effective principals can achieve with autonomy. Principle John Clendaniel understands that reading is the top priority for an elementary school. “Reading is the cornerstone of education,” says Clendaniel. “In the early years, students must learn to read. Later, they must read to learn.”
One of Clendaniel’s first innovations was purchasing the Science Research Associates (SRA) reading program, which starts in kindergarten. It uses the time-tested phonics method of decoding words and builds on vocabulary and comprehension skills. The average Orange Grove student now reads a year above grade level. The school also promotes the mastery of basic math skills, such as memorizing multiplication tables, that have been largely ignored in the Common Core curriculum.
More than 25% of the school’s 800 students participate in the after-school program, which offers a homework center, karate, dance, archery and even computer graphics and web design. The school even operates its own bus service with teachers serving as bus drivers. Clendaniel even drives a bus himself if an emergency arises.
West Ashley parents currently have limited options when it comes to enrolling their children in a quality public middle school. That has led to declining enrollment in our area’s public middle schools and the recent merger of West Ashley and St. Andrews middle schools in the former Middleton High School building on William Kennerty Dr.
Orange Grove Charter Middle School will open next year for 115 6th graders at the old Oakland Elementary building. A recent survey of 5th grade parents revealed that 114 of the 117 parents want to enroll their children at the new middle school. Orange Grove fills a need for West Ashley middle school parents who want to send their children to an excellent public school. Parent may apply for admission for Orange Grove’s pre-K through 6th grade seats at www.ogecs.com.
Principal John Clendaniel shares my philosophy when he states, “Competition in the marketplace is good for the consumer. Education should be no different.” School Choice is the best way to give every parent, regardless of income or background, the opportunity to give their children the opportunity to receive a quality education and achieve prosperity..
John Steinberger is the chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, a leading Fair Tax advocate, and a West Ashley resident. He can be reached at John.steinberger@scfairtax.org.