Regents say plan to turn high school into charter school needs more study |
On Board Online • January 26, 2015
By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer
The Board of Regents has declined to approve a plan by leaders of a small Orange County school district to turn their high school into a charter school emphasizing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
The Regents returned the charter proposal from the Tuxedo school district at their January meeting, seeking revisions and additional information after several members of the board expressed concern about the financial impact the conversion could have on neighboring school districts.
"I would suggest that we have to send this back until we can address this issue," said Regent Harry Phillips, whose lower Hudson Valley district includes Tuxedo and several nearby school districts. He said the plan, as it stands under current laws and regulations, would present "a tremendous challenge" for at least one neighboring district, Greenwood Lake.
Tuxedo Superintendent Carol Lomascolo told On Board her district's leaders remain committed to pursuing the conversion of George F. Baker High School to a STEM Academy charter school and will strive to address the concerns raised by the Regents.
"We will look at (the financial impacts) and see if there are any options," said Lomascolo.
Any further study will need to go on a fast track, she said, because Tuxedo leaders hope to reopen their high school as a charter school in September. "That window is getting small," Lomascolo said.
The Regents' decision to send the matter back to the district ran contrary to a State Education Department staff recommendation. The staff's memo cited four points in support of granting the charter, including findings that the proposed school would "operate in an educationally and fiscally sound manner" and that it would provide educational benefits to students.
Tuxedo officials conceived their bid to create the state's first so-called "conversion charter school" outside of a major urban center as a way to help their high school survive amid enrollment declines and a tightening financial squeeze.
But the proposal raised concerns in the neighboring K-8 Greenwood Lake district, which is home to the majority of Tuxedo's high school students and where officials calculate a potential $800,000-to-$1 million hit to their roughly $24 million budget next year, if the charter conversion occurs (see On Board, Nov. 24, 2014. http://bit.ly/1wySIpk).
"I'm elated," Greenwood Lake Superintendent Christine Ackerman said after the Regents meeting, which she attended. "I feel that they put our perspective on the table, and I appreciate that."
Under a contract with Tuxedo, Greenwood Lake now pays $12,240 per student to send most of its high school-age students to Tuxedo. But under the state formula used to calculate charter school tuitions, the rate would rise to $18,311 per student. Greenwood Lake officials would not play a role in determining how many students would attend a Tuxedo charter school; that decision would be in the hands of individual students and their parents.
Tuxedo's STEM Academy charter plan also anticipates drawing students from up-to five other districts: Monroe-Woodbury, North Rockland, East Ramapo, Ramapo and Warwick.
Tuxedo can submit a new proposal for consideration by the Regents. Even if a revised plan is again deemed insufficient, however, the Regents may not have legal authority to close the door on a conversion charter school in Tuxedo. State Education Department staff members said the board's only two available options appear to be approving the plan or sending it back for another revision period.