
{"id":27561,"date":"2012-08-30T09:53:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T13:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=27561"},"modified":"2012-08-30T09:53:51","modified_gmt":"2012-08-30T13:53:51","slug":"charter-school-questions-unanswered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/08\/30\/charter-school-questions-unanswered\/","title":{"rendered":"Charter school questions unanswered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Taylor Sisk<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School moves closer to a decision on approval by the State Board of Education, elected officials and concerned local residents say that communications with the proposed school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s local board of directors and the national for-profit company that will co-manage it remain inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you want to be part of a community, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to communitize your conversation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Randee Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said on Tuesday, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not happening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The State Board of Education is scheduled to make a final determination on the Lee school on Sept. 6. The board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Public Charter School Advisory Council has recommended 25 charter schools for approval across the state. If the board grants approval, the applicants will enter into a planning and training program with the state, with decisions for final charter approvals coming no later than March of next year. <\/p>\n<p>The school was originally granted fast-track approval to open for the 2012-13 school year, one of nine schools initially approved after the General Assembly lifted the 100-school cap on charters in the state.<\/p>\n<p>But its applicants were unable to find a location for the school and notified the state board that they would need to delay its opening. They then had to resubmit an application for the 2013-14 school year.<\/p>\n<p>A location has now been proposed in Claremont South, a development planned for the south side of Homestead Road. A Claremont plan that has been revised to include the school will go before the Carrboro Board of Aldermen this fall. That plan has drawn criticism, with neighbors and others voicing concerns about traffic and the environment.<\/p>\n<p>The Lee school will be administered in partnership with for-profit, Michigan-based National Heritage Academies (NHA), which operates more than 70 charter schools across the country, including five in North Carolina. NHA-run schools frequently don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t offer a comprehensive transportation plan. <\/p>\n<p>The school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s charter application states that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When parents choose to provide transportation to their child, they also give themselves an additional opportunity to be involved in the day-to-day life of the school and to develop a deeper rapport with teachers, school leaders and other families.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>It further states that a dean will be designated as the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transportation liaison to coordinate carpooling.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Neighbors are really concerned about the potential additional traffic caused by the charter school,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Julie McClintock, president of the Friends of Bolin Creek. <\/p>\n<p>McClintock said that the increased hard surfaces would reduce infiltration and would wash rainwater laden with pollutants into the nearby creek.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed school, she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153would put even greater stress on an already-impaired Bolin Creek.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>First signs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Controversy began to surround the Lee school prior to discussions of its location. The school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stated objectives are to close the racial and economic achievement gaps, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153prepare students for a rigorous high school and college preparatory program\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and alleviate overcrowding in the elementary schools.<\/p>\n<p>But the local chapter of the NAACP wrote a letter to the State Board of Education in December 2011 stating that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153NAACP stands \u00ef\u00ac\u0081rmly on the position of no diversion of taxpayers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 money from our public schools to support the NHA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s profiting from building a new school here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education wrote a letter to the state board the following month expressing its concern that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153establishment of the proposed new school in 2012 could divert $4.6 million or more in scarce resources at a time of severely constrained budgets.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>But Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell, an educator for 37 years, said that she is not categorically against the charter school. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Life has taught me there are all kinds of schools and you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that a particular kind of school isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to work for somebody,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Fellow board of aldermen member Dan Coleman said that having the school in Claremont \u00e2\u20ac\u0153on the face of it, from a tax standpoint, seems advantageous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>But both Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell and Coleman had concerns early on. Coleman felt the location was wrong for a school with an objective of helping minority students, saying that it should be closer to where more minority students live. <\/p>\n<p>He also, unsuccessfully, urged his colleagues on the board to take an official position echoing the sentiments conveyed in the local school board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter to the state.<\/p>\n<p>For Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell, the for-profit model raised concerns about a departure from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153very basic premises from which public schools function,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d while using public monies.<\/p>\n<p>Is the profit motive in conflict with a goal of providing the best public education possible, Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell and others have asked? And if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a problem, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accountable?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Failure to communicate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Angela Lee is the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lead applicant and the daughter of Howard and Lillian Lee. Howard Lee was the first black mayor of Chapel Hill, a state senator and chair of the State Board of Education, and Lillian Lee was a longtime educator.<\/p>\n<p>Howard and Lillian Lee, Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153are the gold standard as far as educators go.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She said she knows they wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put their names on something they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in. <\/p>\n<p>But from the beginning, Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said, it seemed as if the school was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153going to be introduced to the district rather than be woven into its fabric.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been very little conversation between the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s local representatives and the community. Over the past several weeks, <em>The Citizen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/em> requests to Angela Lee and other board members for responses to questions have not been met. Without responding directly, Lee eventually referred questions to an NHA spokesperson.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to respond in a public arena to questions, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an issue of transparency there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Linda Haac, a member of Save Bolin Creek who serves on Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transportation advisory board. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s troubling.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>According to Matt Ellinwood, a policy advocate for the N.C. Justice Center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Education and Law Project, North Carolina law states that charter schools must be operated by private nonprofit organizations, but doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prohibit nonprofits from contracting with for-profit educational management organizations.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important though, Ellinwood said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to ensure that for-profit companies are not operating charter schools with the nonprofit functioning as a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcshell.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This seems especially concerning in the context of the Lee school, he said, in that questions about the operation of the school have been referred to NHA. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The big question,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ellinwood said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is who is really running this school?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCampus of the future\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A lack of communication at the local level has had at least two consequences, Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said.<\/p>\n<p>The first involves a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cookie-cutter approach\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the school facility proposed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a facility that NHA would own and lease to the Lee school. Schools should be built to last 50 years, and are built that way in this district, she said, but the one proposed at Claremont would not be.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look at Morris Grove or look at Rashkis,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The school they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking to build is not even in the same ballpark.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Were I this developer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would probably go back to the drawing board.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>The second issue, she said, involves an integration of the school into the system. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is a formidable school complex\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the vicinity of the proposed site, Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said, citing Seawell Elementary, Smith Middle, Chapel Hill High and the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The worst thing is that you get this school that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an isolate from what could potentially be a fusion of educational campuses up in that area. That, to me, should be a goal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to create \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an integrated educational campus of the future.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Of what that integration would require, Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The people who should be asking that question are not asking it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d acknowledging that it must be a two-way initiative, but adding, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You would hope that if the school is interested in coming [into this community], they would initiate that conversation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>When issues like this arise, Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to sit down with the people in the community. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 If something doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like it fits with the efforts of the community, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to sit down and have a conversation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are a lot of questions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Haac, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and they need to be answered. And if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not answered, then that raises even more questions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p><em>Next week: More questions<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Communications with the proposed charter school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s local board of directors and the national for-profit company that will co-manage it remain inadequate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27562,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27561\/revisions\/27562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}