Charter school set to open first Houston-area campus in Katy

Prompted by local parents, a public charter school promising academic rigor and a focus on languages for children in kindergarten through eighth grade is planned for Katy.

International Leadership of Texas announced it will open a school in August on the northwest corner of Franz and Porter roads, said Eddie Conger ILT’s superintendent and founder.

Plans for the K-8 school aswell as for another opening next fall in Houston’s Westpark area signal the coming of ILT to the Houston area. The group plans to add a high school next year that would be near to both K-8 schools.

In addition to English, students will be taught Spanish and Mandarin with a focus on leadership.

“Many parents are very interested in the international prospective that we are trying to teach,” ILT spokesman Jim Croswell said.

Construction of the Katy school is estimated to cost between $23 million and $25 million, according to an ILT press release. The 90,000-square-foot facility aims to serve an enrollment of about 1,400, Croswell said.

“Our schools have opened at full capacity,” Conger said. “The parents know or feel their children will have a top educational opportunity, a new facility, learn three languages as well as leadership skills. Parents are flocking to our mission statement, ‘Others Before Self.’ Our emphasis is in servant leadership.”

Katy parents Sandra Warner, Nancy Salazar and Manya Leach were searching for such an educational program for their children.

After searching the Internet, the three found ILT, which has schools in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and they traveled to Dallas to meet Conger, who gave them a tour of the schools.

The meeting with the parents led ILT, which had been looking to expand, to pick Katy as a site to establish a school.

ILT schools offer classes in kindergarten through eight grade in Garland, Arlington and Keller. The three campuses have a combined enrollment this school year of just over 5,000, Conger said.

“We do have some freedom from some of the regulations that traditional school districts have, but students don’t pay tuition,” Conger said.

Students pay for lunches unless they are on the federal free or reducedprice lunch program.

“They pay for their uniforms, and for books fourth grade and above,” Conger said. “Parents bring and pick up their children; there are no school buses.”

After enrollment fills, ILT will conduct a lottery in which slots would be filled as openings became available, Croswell said.

Leach said her son attends an elementary school in Katy ISD where he is in a language-immersion program in which he also learns Spanish.

That approach combines students from two language groups for instruction where half of the class is comprised of fluent English speakers and the other half of students fluent in Spanish, Leach said. Students learn academic content through both languages.

After unsuccessfully approaching Katy ISD with a request to extend the program to higher grade levels, the three parents began searching the Internet and found ILT, Warner said.

“Katy ISD benefits from great reputation, butwhen it comes to specialized teaching, at least language courses, it has so much room to grow and is not currently meeting that need that many parents want here and that schools like ILTCS offer,” Warner said. “It’s also nice to have (private or charter) schools because they’re smaller in size. It has more opportunities and structure.”

Attempts to reach Katy ISD for information on its language immersion program were unsuccessful by presstime.

Financing to build ILT schools is provided through Boise, Idaho investors Jason Kotter and Ryan Van Alfen.

“They find a charter they believe in, and they spend their private money to buy the land and build. We are kind of on a lease-to-own arrangement,” Conger said.

The builder for the Katy school is Arizona-based Vector Construction, and the architectural firm is Boise, Idaho-based BRS Architecture.

The school is responsible for hiring staff mem- bers andthe other financial obligations, Conger said.

The state gives about $7,800 per student a year to charter schools, he said.

“We are 94 percent funded through (the Texas Education Agency), directly related to the students and the demographics of the students,” Conger said. Warner is enthusiastic. “My daughter will graduate knowing three languages, English, Spanish and Mandarin, which will serve her well in her future life,” she said.

For more information, visit www.ilTexas.org or visit “IL Texas Katy K8” on Facebook.