Schenectady charter school sees success amid some struggles with enrollment, staffing

SCHENECTADY —  In addition to the three R's — reading, writing and arithmetic — a recurring theme among Destine Preparatory Charter School teachers and administrators is the 1% rule. 

“Every day we talk about, let’s get 1% better. And if we get 1% better, the hopeful outcome is that we’ve gotten holistically better, and we’re where we want to be,” said Re’Shawn Rogers, founder and head of school, during a recent interview. 

Nearly three years after the charter school opened its doors to kindergarten and first graders, the school has now expanded to grades two and three with a student body of 208 students, most of them Schenectady residents. There are plans to go up to the fifth grade. 

Rogers said the school’s five core values are self-awareness, responsible decision-making, social awareness, positive relationships and self-management.

“So, we measure them by going into the classroom and observing, and saying, ‘Are kids exhibiting these attitudes or not?’ And if not, what are the ones we need to lean into more as a staff to make sure kids are building those competencies,” he said. 

While the Franklin Street school continues to make steady progress on the academic front, Rogers acknowledged that it has been a struggle to attract teachers and students, something he pointed out is a problem statewide.

He said that the school will continue to prioritize boosting enrollment and improve on what is now a 94% attendance rate, slightly below where they want to be.

As a result, he said, Destine hired an enrollment coordinator who has reached out to local day cares and nurseries, and attends various activities and events in an effort to boost the student roster.

The school, said Rogers, has broadened its search for teachers to outside the area.

All told the school has 29 staff members, 18 of them classroom teachers.

Destine is the first charter school in the city of Schenectady in two decades. The International Charter School of Schenectady, which eventually moved to Rotterdam and closed in 2008, first opened in the city's former Fulton Elementary School building in 2002.

“I don’t see them as challenges, I see them as opportunities for us to continue to grow and get better,” Rogers said. “They’re the natural sort of growing pains of a new charter school, including making sure that we have adequate staffing.” 

Overall, New York needs approximately 180,000 new teachers over the next decade to meet workforce demands. 

At the same time, a report from the The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a free market think tank, said that enrollment in the state's public school districts for kindergarten through grade 12 declined by more than 320,000 students between 2014 and 2025. Over that same period, the drop-off in enrollment for the earlier grades of kindergarten through grade 8 is down 17%. 

He said after the inaugural year, the school hired a director of scholar support. The staffer is charged with the development of teacher skills and school culture, as well as building strong relationships with students and their families “So our kids, they like being here. They enjoy our school, and they feel like it’s their home. I feel that’s part of that small charter dynamic that everyone knows everyone.”

Destine's student-to-teacher ratio is at about 14 to 1, said Rogers. 

He reflected on the first school year in August 2022 which was “so much boots on the ground trying to make people aware of what we were doing and trying to get people excited as well as just engaging to learn more about what they wanted to see in a school.”

Rogers said the school sends home books, has teachers stay afterwards to work with parents to help them understand their child's homework and provides food and clean uniforms for families who need the help.

“There’s no end that we don’t stop at to ensure that our kids and our families feel really supported, so I hope people know that we are a family and student-first school,” he added.  

Latoyia Santana said her son, Sydeek McClinton, 7, has been flourishing at Destine.

She said Rogers assured her early on and has kept his word that “anything that was on his (her son's) IEP, that they would do everything in their power and the school’s power to make sure that my son’s needs was met.”

An IEP is a plan educators are required to draw up for students who have special needs.

Santana also said that while she doesn't abuse it, she likes having phone numbers for school officials if she needs them after hours.

She said her son looks forward to the Panther Circle on Fridays, a time for students to sing their class theme and where they are recognized and receive awards for their academic achievements. 

“He comes home, he is very excited, he has close relationships with certain people. … It's almost like a family community. They know the kids' names, the behaviors and things like that,” Santana added. 

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