The Gloucester Community Arts Charter School has received applications from 110 potential students, enough to force a lottery Monday to choose the children who will have seats in fourth and fifth grade.
Interest in the school among parents has been watched closely since it started accepting applications last month in the face of vigorous community opposition and accusations of impropriety by the state officials who approved it.
As of last week, only 57 students had submitted applications, and attendance at seven recent information sessions had been low.
But using a recruiting push over the final week that included the chance to win a $250 gift card for those who refer applicants (more applicants, better chance to win), the charter school pushed its applications close to the 120 needed for full first-year enrollment.
"We are thrilled with the enrollment," Charter board President Amy Ballin said yesterday. "Charter schools in the first year often don't fill up. This is absolutely fabulous."
The charter school is required to report its expected enrollment to the state March 19. The state Department of Education does not set a minimum enrollment number for charter schools, and it is unclear what — if anything — would have happened if applications had been significantly lower.
Part of the pitch to prospective parents includes the assurance that applying for the charter school does not commit a child to attend or prevent the child from returning to a district school. So it is likely that some portion of those who applied will return to their previous schools.
The enrollment report that goes to the state March 19 — and later to the Gloucester Public Schools — includes only the total number of applicants, not the names of children who applied.
For its September opening, the charter school was looking for 20 students in fourth and fifth grade and 40 students in sixth and seventh.
The applications include 28 children for Grade 4, 27 for Grade 5, 39 for Grade 6 and 17 for Grade 7.
The charter school plans to expand in subsequent years to kindergarten through eighth grade and serve 240 students.
As it finalized the lottery, the charter school this week also closed in on finding a permanent leadership team for the school.
Yesterday, the charter school confirmed that it has entered negotiations with Anthony Blackman of the Pingree School in Hamilton and Jane O'Connor, an educational consultant, to potentially enter into a joint head of school arrangement.
"We would be happy to have either of them, but this came out of the hiring process," said Jay Featherstone, chairman of the charter school hiring committee, yesterday about the possibility of having co-heads of school.
Blackman has been the associate head of school at Pingree, a private high school in South Hamilton, since 2006.
O'Connor entered the consulting business from the Deer Island, Maine, public schools.
Right now, charter school operations are being handled by interim director Matthew Gallup.
The charter school gives preference to Gloucester residents and Gallup said yesterday that only a handful of those who applied were from outside the city — none of them in fifth grade.
In fourth grade, the only other with a lottery, there were four applicants from outside Gloucester. Those four students will be added to the wait list behind the four Gloucester students who lose the lottery.
In addition to the student lottery, scheduled for noon Monday at the Blackburn Performing Arts Center, the charter will also choose the winner of its refer-an-applicant raffle.
The winner — with the name pulled blindly from a hat — will get a $250 gift certificate from their choice of either Target or Best Buy.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at 978-283-7000. x3455, or via e-mail at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
Nordic Festival Puts North Korea in Spotlight
'Rumor Has It' Adele's Rolling in the Grammys
Grohl, Grammy Nominees Cut Up on the Red Carpet
Greece Passes New Austerity Deal Amid Rioting
Coroner: Houston Autopsy Results Weeks Away
Raw Video: Greek Rioting Ahead of Austerity Vote
Raw Video: Child Rescued After Kosovo Avalanche
Pop Music Superstar Whitney Houston Dies at 48
Whitney Houston's Church Mourns Her Passing
Reaction to Houston's Death at Clive Davis Party
79 Turtles Seized at Shanghai Airport
Severe Cold Wreaks Havoc in China
Fuel Removal Under Way on Capsized Italian Ship
Police: Houston Found Dead in Her Hotel Room
Paul Suffers Narrow Loss to Romney in Maine
Palin Brings Anti-Washington Message to CPAC
Obama Scraps Birth Control Mandate
Navy Names Ship for Gabrielle Giffords
Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Kill Obama
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
