School Design Center

School Design Center 2023-24 Cohort

If you have great ideas for a new public school, we are looking for you!

Joining the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center’s School Design Center gives you access to an ecosystem of supports designed to help you and your team to create an application for a school. The SDC is a multi-year development program, with acceptance determined by a competitive application process each spring.

Whether you are thinking of creating a Charter school or working with a district to create new options, the School Design Center will be there to guide you through the process.

Join our Informational School Design Center Webinar on November 19th at 1PM

Email susan.baldwin@opsrc.net to register

Apply to Join the Next Cohort

School Design Center Cohort Process

Timeline

Recruiting/Gateway - December to June

School teams participating in the Gateway will meet monthly on weekends to learn about specific requirements for charter schools in Oklahoma as they design their school and start building an application.

At the end of the Gateway, these design documents will be reviewed and evaluated by an external review panel and teams may participate in a capacity interview. Teams that successfully move through the Gateway Process will be invited to participate in the funded School Design Fellowship Program.

School Design Fellowship

During the School Design Fellowship, the organizations will receive funding to support one full time staff member from July to June. Over the course of the funded fellowship year, school teams are expected to finish and submit an application for a high quality public school within the state of Oklahoma, then manage the process of approval of that application and apply for important startup grants. The teams will also need to begin working with the community to design the operations of the school and searching for staff and facilities.

Megan teaches SDC cohort member about communications

School Design Center Cohort members receive training to develop their school.

SDC cohort member working on school plans

Planning Year

If a school is granted approval to open, an additional planning year before opening is crucial to ensuring the school starts out on the right foot. Planning teams will hire basic staff to manage the planning, usually using startup grants. The team will need to find a facility, hire staff, set up all operations, develop policies, and many more tasks before finally opening with students the next year.

Implementation Year

The culmination of the School Design Center is the first day of school with students. OPSRC's team will be there with you to celebrate and support during that critical first year.

Apply to Join the Next Cohort

For more information, contact Susan Baldwin, School Design Center Lead, or Eric Doss, Director of Quality Charter Services.

Contact Susan
Contact Eric