The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District committee tasked with oversight of charter schools voted Monday to advance the two applications it received this year. But it didn’t come without some controversy.
The school board’s Charter School Oversight Committee meeting was standing room only when the clock struck 9 a.m. on Monday. Some attendees were clad in cobalt blue, Aurora Borealis Charter School’s color. Others held young children on their laps.
All were there to support renewal of the school’s governing document.
Daniel Mahr chairs the school academic policy committee. The group is a unique fixture of charter schools, and includes parents and teachers who pick the school curriculum and can hire or fire the principal. He quickly condemned what he said was a lack of professionalism by board members during a meeting last week.
“Members of the committee – two in particular – used this public meeting time to make accusations and attack our charter with the media present, where they had not brought any of these issues to our attention prior to this time,” he said.
Aurora Borealis Charter, or ABC, opened in 1997 and is in the process of renewing its charter agreement with the district. The school charter is reviewed every year, but is only renewed every few years The committee’s tasked with ensuring the school hasn’t violated its contract with the district since the last renewal.
The meeting came exactly a week after the committee hammered the school’s principal with questions.
Specifically, committee members said ABC serves a relatively low number of students with special needs as compared to the district as a whole, even though they get the same level of money to provide special education services. They also said ABC’s lack of bus and lunch programs could be barriers to entry for low income families.
Jamie Miller is the vice president of the school’s academic policy committee and has children enrolled at ABC. She says her kids are eligible for special education services and come from a low income household, which counters the committee’s claims.
“It is insulting to imply that our small paycheck means that we need bussing to educate our children and to feed them,” she said. “I’m quite certain there are other parents just like me.”
Mahr also challenged a committee assertion that it was misusing state money intended for special education services. ABC's budget for the fiscal year that ended in June included just under $370,000 from the state to serve students with special needs.
Some committee members last week questioned whether the school should get to keep that money considering it serves a small number of special education students relative to other elementary schools and the district as a whole.
ABC, though, says their budget comes as a lump sum amount, meaning it doesn’t itemize how much is intended for special education programs.
On Monday, the district’s finance director, Liz Hayes, confirmed that.
“There is a special ed factor in that calculation, but there is no requirement that that exact dollar amount goes to special education,” she said. “It’s the amount of funding generated by the formula.”
Despite the pushback, the charter group revised language in their renewal application regarding special education programs after last week’s meeting.
Clayton Holland, the district’s superintendent, said he didn’t think ABC’s charter renewal was at risk after last week’s meeting.
“So I don't think there's any intent from anybody I spoke to ever deny this charter, just so you're aware of that,” he said. “But it's important the questions are asked.”
Committee and school board member Virginia Morgan had raised concerns about ABC’s special education programming last week., At Monday’s meeting, however, said she’s satisfied with the changes.
“I think that the new language is a great improvement, and it really does address a special ed issue in the way that it needs to for our legal requirements as a public school in a public school district,” she said. “So I'm very happy with that change.”
The committee unanimously agreed to advance ABC’s renewal application. A new charter application from the Kenaitze Indian Tribe also was moved along to a third round of meetings on Nov. 4. Monday’s full committee meeting can be streamed on the school district’s BoardDocs website.
Both applications are subject to approval by the full school board.
