Funya to head charter school when classes start

Becomes fourth education director

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The school’s former education director, Nicole Connolly, left the position for personal reasons, said Superintendent Michael Martirano. He said she will be teaching at another St. Mary’s public school next school year. ‘‘Basically, I chose to pursue a position that will allow me to spend more time with my family,” Connolly said, adding she was happy to be part of the first year of the charter school.

Funya will become the fourth education director at the school in just one year. The first resigned before the start of school for personal reasons. The second, founding charter member Kathy Glaser, was named acting director and led through the school’s opening last August. Connolly was named director in mid-September last year.

Regardless of the many changes in leadership at the school, Funya is a recognizable face among staff and students at the Lexington Park school.

‘‘I have worn many hats” at the charter school, Funya said.

The Lexington Park resident was one of several founders of the school and worked with people including Glaser and Kate Sullivan to write the charter, which is the governing document. ‘‘I’m just delighted. She’s an excellent educator,” Glaser said. ‘‘She’s a leader who inspires team work in people.”

Funya was also the chair of the school’s governing board, which oversees the operations, curriculum and other aspects of the school. She will be replaced in that position by Christine Bergmark, another member of the governing board.

Funya has three children who attend Chesapeake Public Charter School and volunteered often during the school’s first year. Funya taught for three years at Little Flower School, a parochial school in Great Mills. More recently she has worked with the Chesapeake Bay Field Lab exposing classes of students to life on the bay.

She said she put in her resignation as the nonprofit’s executive director this week, a decision that was difficult but necessary, she said. ‘‘It’s not really my style to come in and change anything” at the charter school, she said. She plans to ‘‘get a handle on things before I decide to make any major changes.”

Funya is now called acting education director. The job will be posted sometime in the next several months, Martirano said, and open for applications. Funya said she could consider the job permanently, but for now is helping where needed. She said she ‘‘wants to do what’s best for the school.”

The charter was at one point rejected by the local school board but after an appeal to the state school board in 2004 was back on track. The school opened last August – two years after its originally planned start date – to about 160 children in kindergarten through fifth grade. This year the school will add sixth grade and has plans to expand to seventh and eighth .

The first public assessment scores for the school were released this week. The charter school’s test scores were similar to many of the other St. Mary’s public elementary schools. The percentages of students who passed the reading and math tests in third, fourth and fifth graded were mostly in the 90s, except for fourth-grade math, which saw 75 percent pass..