On Feb. 25, AMSA’s request to expand student enrollment was denied by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The request sought permission for 34 additional students, which would have brought the total number of students from its current 966 to 1,000 by the 2026-27 school year.
Although both Principal Mike Nawrocki and Executive Director Dr. Lisa Mobley were disheartened that the request was denied, it does not disrupt day-to-day operations at AMSA.
“It really came down to providing more students with opportunity,” Mr. Nawrocki said. “We believe we are very successful, and that we do a nice job here, so we wanted to open the doors to more students.”
The request process started in August of 2024, when Dr. Mobley presented the expansion application to the AMSA Board of Trustees, which approved it.
It was then submitted to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, where commissioner Russell Johnston recommended it for approval. It was then presented to BESE.
AMSA has long had a waiting list of students hoping for acceptance through the school’s lottery system. For the 2021-22 school year, AMSA received 656 applications for 156 spots. For the 2023-24 school year, the number of applicants jumped to 1,056 for 145 spots.
AMSA’s request was one of four denied at the board meeting, out of five total. Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, the commonwealth’s secretary of education, voted no on all five.
Charter schools are seen by many as entities that take resources from traditional public schools without exhibiting the success they promise. People who spoke against some of the charter expansions during the board meeting expressed concern that the charter schools were not providing their students with enough opportunity.
AMSA has never had this problem, and it has been ranked one of the top public schools in Massachusetts by U.S. News and World Report for more than a decade.
“I note that in [the summary of recommendation] there was a comment about net school spending reaching their limit for at least one of the four communities. That’s 25 percent of the communities hitting that limit, which is a concern,” said BESE member Mary Ann Stewart.
Charter schools are only allowed to take up to 9 percent of a sending district’s net school spending cap, which is the minimum amount of money a district has to pay on public education. When a charter school accepts students, it is transferring a certain amount of money out of sending school budgets to fund the charter school.
Hudson is already near that cap number, but AMSA did not plan to take any more students from Hudson had the expansion request been granted.
“People, families, they want to come to AMSA, so even a little bit is a little bit more than what we have,” Dr. Mobley said.
In February, Dr. Mobley worked with the Massachusetts Public Charter School Association on an email campaign urging BESE members to vote yes on enrollment expansion requests. The board received more than 400 emails.
Dr. Tutwiler, however, has stated that he does not believe it is the right time for charter expansions, according to the CommonWealth Beacon.
Both Mr. Nawrocki and Dr. Mobley expressed interest in making another request down the line.
Although Gov. Maura Healey has not explicitly stated her opposition to charter schools, past comments and the focus of her administration suggest that she would rather target causes of underperformance in traditional public schools rather than expand charters.
Dr. Mobley said she is planning to continue her work with the Massachusetts Public Charter School Association to determine the right time to apply again for enrollment expansion.
