111 Students on Wait List for McAuliffe Charter School's Class of 2018

The Christa McAuliffe Charter School held its annual admission lottery Wednesday night for incoming middle school students.

The Framingham-based charter school accepted 140 students into the school and place another 111 students on a wait list to attend the middle school for the incoming sixth grade class. These students will be the school’s Class of 2018.

There were about 30 applicants for the seventh grade class and about 20 students for grade 8. But at this time the public charter school has no openings for those grades. All those applicants also were placed on a wait list.

The Christa McAuliffe Charter School is a diverse “Expeditionary Learning” public school for students in grades 6 through 8. The school’s hands-on curriculum cultivates high levels of student engagement, responsibility for learning, and enduring character growth.

The school’s enrollment policy outlines a lottery and admissions process that follows the state charter school laws and regulations that call for a blind lottery:

• First preference goes to students who have siblings currently attending the school.
• Next, students who are residents of Ashland, Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Marlborough, Natick, Southborough, and Sudbury are drawn through the random electronic lottery tool.
• Students who live outside of the eight-town region may also apply to the lottery; the school draws from the non-regional pool after all sibling and regional student names have been drawn.

There were about 24 siblings guaranteed spots in the incoming sixth grade class.

After those students were placed on the list for acceptance into the school, Lisa Mandozzi, executive director of the MetroWest YMCA Framingham branch, conducted the school’s lottery.

Students selected in the lottery and those accepted off of the wait list have 10 business days to submit forms to enroll in the charter school, said McAuliffe Executive Director Kristin Harrison.

To view the wait list, click here.

This was the first year the lottery was held at 135 Newbury Street, the school’s new campus. The charter school moved into its new campus in January.

There were a total of 251 applicants this year, down from the last two years.

There were 283 applicants for the 144 slots for the current sixth grade class or the class of 2017. It was the largest applicant pool for the school’s largest class ever.

There were 261 applicants for the current 7th grade class and 214 applicants for the current 8th grade class.

There were 150 applicants, the year before that, which is the current grade 8 at the school.

Editor’s Note: My daughter is a grade 8 student at the Charter school.

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Framingham Patch asked Cummings Photography to cover the event via photos. Click on the thumbnails to view the photos or click on the link below to view larger-size photos on the Framingham Patch Facebook page.