Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
FAQs
What is a public charter school in California and why do they exist?
Charter schools are public schools. Charter schools in California are cost-free and serve a variety of different types of students. Charter schools are granted flexibility in filling a need for new programmatic approaches, student-focused, or thematic options in communities, while still being held accountable to performance standards and state and federal education laws.
As a public charter school and non-profit, Making Waves Academy doesn’t cost anything to attend. Based on its core values of Community, Resilience, Respect, Responsibility, and Scholarship, the school prepares students for success through rigorous academics, holistic social-emotional skill development and psychological support, and comprehensive college and career readiness programming.
Who attends Making Waves Academy and who teaches at Making Waves Academy?
Making Waves Academy is a public charter school for students in 5th through 12th grade, primarily from Richmond, California, and west Contra Costa County in the Bay Area. Enrollment is cost-free, accessible, and is based on a lottery process because demand is high. Making Waves Academy’s enrollment is more than 1,100 students, 99% of whom are students of color and 80% of whom are from socioeconomically disadvantaged households. As a California public school, all teachers of core academic subjects at Making Waves Academy must be properly credentialed and certificated. Teachers have broad experiences and backgrounds.
How does the lottery process work? How do I enroll my child?
The lottery process is a random selection process used when a school has more applicants than it has available space. The lottery process does not consider academic performance, test scores, gender, race, ethnicity, or religion. Students currently in the 4th grade must apply to the lottery for entry to Making Waves Academy for the 5th grade. Applications are announced and distributed in the spring. Students chosen in the lottery are either accepted or put on a wait list in the order in which their lottery number was generated. Making Waves Academy also accepts lottery applications for grades 6th through 8th to form a waiting list each year. If students leave mid-year, 5th through 8th grade students can be pulled off the wait list in the order they were drawn from the lottery.
Visit our Enroll page to learn more about priorities and deadlines for enrollment.
How are public charter schools like Making Waves Academy governed, approved, and overseen?
A charter petition must be reviewed and approved by a charter authorizer – a local school district or a county office of education. The charter petition must address how the charter school will operate its program in accordance with certain criteria (e.g., program and governance). If approved, the charter can operate for up to five years. In its last year, the charter school must submit materials for the charter authorizer to review and consider the renewal for approval. Authorizers are more likely to renew charters that are proven to be effective in helping their students meet both the expectations described in the charter and the statewide standards for student achievement (found on the California School Dashboard). Similar to traditional public schools, charters are measured by their academic performance on California state tests (which are published and open to the public on the California Department of Education website). In some cases, parents and families attending and supporting charter renewal hearings is critical to a successful renewal.
Making Waves Academy’s charter authorizer is the Contra Costa County Board of Education, which provides monitoring and oversight to ensure adherence to specific guidelines and expectations laid out in the charter. Charter schools must also have their own site-based governance team or board to provide local and direct oversight of the charter school. Governance includes fiduciary, programmatic, and management oversight. The Making Waves Academy board appoints board members to renewable terms and to adhere to by-laws for governance.
What are the similarities and differences between traditional public schools and public charter schools?
Both traditional public schools and charter schools are supported by local, state, and federal funds and do not cost anything to attend. Both sets of schools are responsible for teaching approved California State Curriculum Standards, administering state testing, and adhering to any conditions as required by any of their local, state, or federal funding. Like traditional public schools, charter schools cannot consider gender, race, ethnicity, or religion in the admissions process.
California allows charter schools more flexibility than traditional public schools to be responsive to community needs and foster innovative and creative approaches to teaching and learning. By state law, charter schools are allowed to set their own programmatic vision and decide how they want to allocate their allotted budget under the oversight of a local governance structure (or board), as opposed to traditional public schools within a school district whose program and some portion of their budget allocation is determined by the district. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools go through a review and renewal process every five years.
How are public charter schools funded and how is Making Waves Academy funded?
As public schools, charter schools receive a mix of state, local, and federal government funding based on the number of students enrolled, and more specifically based on the Average Daily Attendance number. Making Waves Academy, like many other charter schools, is also a federally and state recognized non-profit. While a significant portion of Making Waves Academy’s funding comes from public funding, another significant portion comes from charitable contributions, public and private grants, and fundraising.
Making Waves does not charge a fee to attend and does not generate a profit as public money and financial contributions pay for staff, programs, facilities, and services.
What makes Making Waves Academy special? What are the outcomes?
As a public charter school, Making Waves Academy is committed to providing new and best practices in teaching and learning and to preparing students for success through rigorous academics, holistic social-emotional skill development and psychological support, and comprehensive college and career readiness programming.
This commitment has led to incredible outcomes for our students including 100% of graduates meet the “a-g” admissions requirements for University of California/California State University campuses. Making Waves Academy supports a continuum of college and career pathways, with a focus on college. Through Making Waves Foundation’s college success program, graduates of Making Waves Academy are eligible for college scholarships, coaching, and financial literacy education to get to and through college as quickly and with as little debt as possible. Making Waves alumni are valuable contributors in their careers and in their communities.
Are there opportunities to play team sports at MWA?
Yes. The upper school offers an interscholastic athletic program. Making Waves Academy (MWA) is part of the Bay Counties League East (BCL), which is part of the larger Bay Area Conference (BAC), as well as the North Coast Section (NCS), governed by the statewide California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). As members, students must be academically eligible to participate. See the upper school pages to learn more about the athletics opportunities offered.
What other sorts of extracurriculars are offered at MWA?
Students can participate in student leadership, dance, art, and a variety of different clubs and activities in both the middle school and upper school.
What are the typical school hours for students?
Students can arrive as early as 7:30 am. Breakfast is served at 8:00 am. Unless there is a special schedule, instruction begins at 8:30 am. The core academic day ends by 3:30 pm Monday-Thursday and 2:00 PM on Fridays. Students enrolled in the middle school extended day program receive additional academic support and enrichment and stay until 6:00 pm.
Does MWA provide any transportation for students?
MWA does not offer any transportation service at this time.
Does MWA offer free breakfast or lunch?
Yes, MWA offers free breakfast, lunch, and snacks for those attending extended day programs. MWA is a Provision 2 school, which means that ALL students eat for free since well over half of our students (more than 80%) qualify for Free and Reduced Priced Meals (FRPM) through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).