Environmental Charter School's new CEO Patrick Dowd goes back to school

Pittsburgh's Environmental Charter School (ECS) has a new CEO: Patrick Dowd, who comes to the position from Allegheny County Health Department, where he was the chief operating officer and acting director.

ECS is one of the city's largest public charter schools. It serves about 1,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The school is so popular with families, they enter a lottery to compete for spots for their children. Like all public charters, ECS is funded by Pittsburgh Public Schools through per-pupil tuition payments, but operates independently from the district.

Dowd, whose career has ranged from teaching to nonprofit leadership to elected office, started his new role as CEO on July 15. He takes the helm as Pittsburgh Public Schools are faced with potential school closures, which some say are in part due to tuition payments the district makes to charter schools.

Dowd joined WESA’s Morning Edition host Priyanka Tewari to discuss his plans for ECS, his position on school choice and his vision for schools in the Pittsburgh region.

Environmental Charter School

Priyanka Tewari: You've served on Pittsburgh City Council and run for mayor. You were also a Pittsburgh School Board member. What made you say yes to becoming the CEO of Environmental Charter School?

Patrick Dowd: I spent 10 years as a teacher, so I really started my career as an educator. And some of that work that you mentioned, like running for office as a school board member, I did those things partly as an educator, to help students see that people could do that — not necessarily thinking that I would win. And those kinds of activities took me further and further away from education, but I'd always been looking for a way to get back to school, so to speak.

You took over the role at ECS from the founding CEO, Jon McCann, who led the school for nearly 15 years. Are you looking to make any changes to the way the school is run?

We've graduated our first high school class and that's a huge milestone for our organization and for the city as a whole. We are excited to think about how we can establish a new facility for those [high school] students. They're currently working in the St. Raphael school [in Morningside], a former diocesan school. It's been a great partnership with the diocese but we really want to think about how we can establish a facility that would be the full manifestation of both our values and our mission and the work that those high school students aspire to do.

Could you explain to people who may not understand: What is a charter school? How is it funded?

Charters in Pennsylvania have been around for 30 years. These are public schools. They are an important part of the educational ecosystem in Pittsburgh and across Pennsylvania.

We have traditional public schools that are the foundational education system for a community and charter schools really are there to provide additional choice and options for families. Different kids need different things at different points in their development And that's what we think we contribute.

So we are a public school. We are held accountable by the same standards as traditional public schools. Our students take the tests that traditional public school students take. We have a governing body, though it's not elected, like the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education, it's a traditional nonprofit board.

So we are in many, many ways the very same thing as a public school. The main difference is that we're providing a curricular offering that is different from the traditional public schools.

And how are [charters] funded? 

Charter schools receive funding through a formula. Typically, you take the total expenses of a school district and you divide it by the total number of students and you come up with a per-pupil allocation or tuition rate.

When a student goes from Pittsburgh Public Schools to ECS, there is a tuition payment that's made to ECS. When a student goes back to Pittsburgh Public Schools, that tuition payment goes with them. My kids were at ECS for awhile, and then they went back to Pittsburgh Public Schools.

And this is an important thing to remember: We're part of a system or a sector of education. And really, we at the Environmental Charter School see ourselves as in partnership with Pittsburgh Public and other traditional public schools.

Many traditional public schools in Pittsburgh have diminished budgets. They're struggling to maintain their own aging infrastructure because, some say, they pay for charter schools. As a parent yourself, when it comes to educating your kids, you have made both choices, traditional as well as charter. What is your position on school choice? Is there any advice that you would give to parents who may be trying to decide where to send their children?

Our kids needed different things at different points in their educational experience. All of our six kids actually spent the majority of their time in Pittsburgh Public Schools, but we had some who were in charter schools for a while. We had some who were in non-public schools for a while.

When I think about school choice and I think about a community, I think that the more options and systems available for all kids, the more likely it is that all kids are going to succeed.

We'll also have more professionals who want to do this work because they'll see more opportunities. It’s important to note that around 70% of our educators and our team live inside of city zip codes. So we're bringing people and holding them to the region and we're holding parents to the city as well.

Not only are you heading a charter school, but you are also an educator, having taught history at Winchester Thurston School and The Ellis School. What is your vision for the future of the school system in Pittsburgh?

We've really got to think about this in a more holistic way. One simple example that's on the minds of us at the charter schools right now would be transportation.

Currently we have 43 [public] school districts in Allegheny County and many charter and non-public schools, amounting to hundreds of schools. And each one of those districts is organizing its own transportation.

So there are dozens and dozens of districts that have contracts for transportation ans we have this crazy mashing, mishing, mixing of transportation routes that are not really rational, quite frankly.

If we had people that could start to think, "Hey, how do we bring together a system of transportation that incorporates both yellow bus and our public transit system?," that would actually be really helpful for kids, families and all our schools.

So take that example, imagine all of the complexities that we have now and think of it more holistically as opposed to individually. I think we can do more of that work if we wanted to talk more about academics and accountability and things of that sort.

So is ECS going to be home for a while?

I believe so. I've been trying to get back to school for a long time. I'm not sure I'm ever going to leave.

The audio in this story was produced by Susan Scott Peterson.