The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board issued charter warnings to both ALTA and Potomac Lighthouse Public Charter Schools on Monday for failing to meet academic and governance standards in their preliminary charter review analyses.
“It isn’t intended to be a punishment,” said Board Chair Thomas Nida. “If we don’t do something like this, you can face revocation [of your charter].”
Of the 11 schools that presented their cases to the Board, six schools were not candidates for charter warning according to the 2010 Preliminary Charter Review Analyses. Of the five remaining schools that were eligible for charter warning, ALTA and Potomac Lighthouse were the only two schools to receive a warning.
ALTA Public Charter School has been in operation for five years and serves children in preschool through sixth grade, using an arts-based teaching style. The school was given a grade of “F,” as both the reading and math scores combined are below 50 percent and have declined over the last three years.
“The review does not reflect the progress ALTA has made,” said ALTA school board President Donna Potts. The Board said that drastic changes have been implemented in the school recently, such as separating classes that previously combined two grades and installing a new tutoring program. Potts also said that communication with the staff has had a greater role in school governance.
Despite their efforts, the DCPCS Board issued the school a charter warning with a unanimous vote. “We want to see a different report this time next year,” said Nida.
Potomac Lighthouse has been in operation for four years and serves children in pre-kindergarten to sixth grade. The school was given an overall grade of “D,” due in part to declining test scores.
Potomac Lighthouse school board Treasurer Keirston Woods, attended the meeting to state why the school should not be issued a charter warning, but came up short. Although her case was very lengthy, she was unable to address academic and governance issues, instead continually addressing the fact that the school had expanded by 113 percent over the last four years, going from 216 students to 269 students in 2009 alone.
Potomac Lighthouse began its operation within a shared space at the YMCA, relocating to a permanent space and increasing enrollment in the last four years. Although the school was able to meet academic requirements in its first three years of operation, it was not able to sustain itself financially, so it was forced to expand. With that expansion, the school was able to become more financially responsible. However, the influx of new students caused test scores to go down.
Board Chair Nida said, “you’re gonna pay a price” if you take a pause on academics in order to grow. Although Potomac Lighthouse board members argued that the test scores of returning students were progressing, they had no data to support their findings and the Board decided to issue the school a charter warning with a unanimous vote.
“It’s a perfect time and a perfect reason to have this school on charter warning,” said Nida. “Use it as a tune up to make sure everyone is on the same page. It gives you a chance to really focus in on the things you’ve done.”
When asked how she felt about being issued a charter warning, Woods refrained from commenting.
Another issue the board discussed was whether or not the notice of Conditional Continuance should be lifted from the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy. In January 2009, the school was eligible for charter revocation for not fulfilling the academic standard in its five-year preliminary charter review. In 2009, it was put on Conditional Continuance in the hopes that with a little help the school would be able to fulfill the academic standard as well as retain the governance, non-academic, compliance, and financial performance standards.
Cesar Chavez operates on three campuses, Capitol Hill, Bruce Prep, and Parkside, and all three campuses have made outstanding progressing in 26 areas over the last year. Test scores have gone up in both reading and math at all three campuses, some going up by more than 30 percent. However, the school board noted that the Parkside campus was not as progressive and was in danger of undoing progress if full continuance was not granted to the school. The Board motioned to lift the Conditional Continuance unanimously, although not all parties present were happy about the decision.
Kimberly Brant, mother of three students at Parkside with six more to attend in future years, came on behalf of the Parkside PTA and had a long list of issues to take up with the school board. Some of these issues included not enough books, too many students in detention, safety and security issues, lack of permanent teachers, and mix-ups in regards to how many credits seniors need to graduate. The list consisted 16 issues in all. The Board decided not to take action with respect to these issues and told Chavez School Board Members to address the issues by the next monthly meeting. They also urged Brant to bring other PTA members to that meeting.
“Next month I’ll make sure I have 75 parents here,” said Brant, and urged the public to join the group on Facebook.
The DCPCSB also approved a request for Imagine Southeast Public Charter School to move locations unanimously and approved the agenda, January minutes, finance committee contracts, and the Strategic Plan.
For a full agenda, please go to http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/Agendas/February-22%2C-2010.aspx.
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