ABSTRACT
Bunche-Da Vinci Learning Partnership Academy is an elementary school located between an urban port city and a historically bluecollar suburb. The dignified and well-maintained school structure is a much-sought-after refuge for students, both African American and Latino, from the neighboring smaller suburb, well known for poverty, crime, racial tension, and low performing schools. The school is a beacon of hope and stability in an industrial area of the large city and is in sharp contrast to the nearby schools of the smaller, more notorious,
adjacent suburb. Bunche is a "lighthouse" created by a unique partnership between the district and a nonprofit educational company specializing in innovative school interventions for low-performing students. The district recognized early on that to combat the problems that Bundle's students faced, innovative solutions were needed. The school is characterized by students with a high rate of transience, illegal enrollments from the adjacent district, and high numbers of non-Englishspeaking students, a young and inexperienced staff with high turnover, and geographical isolation from the rest of the district. When approached by Da Vinci Learning Corporation, the district chose Bunche Academy to enter into a unique arrangement with the company to create a partnership that combined elements of a charter school while still remaining a regular part of the district.
