MADISON — In a highly competitive round of grant applications, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction approved 26 awards totaling more than $17 million to plan, open, or expand charter schools in the state.

The two local school districts awarded are:

-Stevens Point Area Public School District Point of Discovery School, $550,000

-Tomorrow River School District Tomorrow River Community Middle School, $700,000

The department received 45 grant applications, requesting $29.6 million, about $12 million more than was available for the first year of charter subgrant funding. In October 2017, the state won a $95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support charter activities over the next five years.

In this first round of grants for the 2018-19 school year, 10 charter schools received planning and implementation grants totaling $7.6 million to support planning activities for public charter schools that will open in the fall of 2019, another 10 schools received implementation grants totaling $6 million for schools that have recently opened or will open this fall, and six schools received grants totaling nearly $3.8 million to expand existing, high-quality public charter schools. Grant activities will span two to five years depending on the grant award.

Grant priorities focused on the growth of high-quality charter schools, especially those that increase access to alternative public school models and improve academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged secondary (grades six through 12) students. High-quality charter schools:

• show evidence of strong academic results, which may include student academic growth;
• operate in a safe and fiscally appropriate manner that meets statutory and regulatory requirements; and
• demonstrate success in significantly increasing student academic achievement, including graduation rates for all students and for each subgroup of students served by the school.