Looking back: A year with charter schools in Washington

SEATTLE (AP) — It's been a bumpy year since Washington's first charter school opened in Seattle.

First Place Scholars' problems were challenging for both the school and the people who run the statewide charter system, and they hope to use the lessons they learned as eight more schools open this fall.

"First Place looked like a slam dunk," Dave Quall, a member of the statewide Charter School Commission, remembers thinking at the beginning of 2014. As a former lawmaker, he had visited the school and thought it would be a good choice for the state's first public charter school.

Among its advantages: the K-5 school wasn't starting from scratch.