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Letter and spirit
The elected board members that run Columbus City Schools voted unanimously this week to demolish four buildings that they previously voted to close due to underutilization. While there is no firm date for any closures, the lame duck elected board president said the demo order was necessary because the buildings—which are currently serving students and will continue doing so until the day they shut down—would somehow become immediate neighborhood eyesores as soon as the last student leaves. He also asserted they are in such bad shape (send a prayer for the unfortunate Columbus Schools teachers who still have to work in them!) that no charter operator would want them. Thus, despite both the letter and the spirit of state law that requires districts to offer unused facilities for sale to charter and private schools, the board believes they are justified in demolishing these buildings without doing so. Fordham’s Aaron Churchill and United Schools’ Andy Boy are quoted in the coverage explaining why the elected board members are acting in bad faith.
Kudos
Kudos to Black Enterprise for this super awesome profile of GEO Schools, the high-performing charter network operating in Indiana and Louisiana. The report touts the long-running successes of their schools, profiles several amazing graduates, and notes that network leaders are working on expanding to Cleveland in the next couple of years. In fact, it’s such a good piece that we are able to overlook the fact that it mistakes Cleveland for the largest city in Ohio.
Retiring
Here is a detailed profile of the career of Susan Schaeffler, founder of the KIPP DC Public Schools network, who is retiring after 25 years at the helm there. There’s as much coverage of charter school evolution and the ups and downs of charter/district coexistence in the District over time as there is of Schaeffler’s specific work. But rehashing all the drama is indeed one way to highlight her vital role through the years.
Digging deep
Penn Live this week published the eighth (!) in an ongoing series digging deeply into the growth, operation, and impacts of Commonwealth Charter Academy, Pennsylvania’s fastest growing virtual charter school. This one focuses on testing and accountability, and it reports, among other findings, that less than 30 percent of the school’s students take state assessments.
Concerned charter leaders
The Columbus Dispatch covers reports of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the capital city this week. The geographic focus appears to be the Northland neighborhood, home to a number of campuses in the Horizon Science Academy and Zenith Academy charter networks. Concerned leaders of both networks are quoted in this coverage from yesterday.
Once more unto the breach...
Peter Greene examines the recent West Virginia circuit court ruling that prevents the authorization of any new charter schools by the state charter board without the approval of voters in the county where the school wants to locate. He explains that the current case is actually a refiling of a previous lawsuit, which had resulted in a similar injunction later tossed out by the West Virginia Supreme Court. Greene is sure this one will end up in the same place for a final verdict…but stops short of predicting the outcome.
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