Two charter school applicants made their final appeals Monday evening to the Montgomery County Board of Education, which next week will decide if either of them will become the county’s first approved charter school.

The Community Montessori Public Charter School which would work with economically disadvantaged students and Seneca Creek Public Charter School which would focus on environmental science and outdoor education are this year’s applicants. Outgoing Superintendent Jerry D. Weast recommended approving the Montessori school but not Seneca Creek. Charter schools are publicly funded schools founded by private parties.

Both of this year’s applicants had an opportunity to lobby for their school’s approval as board members pushed for clarification on the details. The Board of Education has the final say on whether the schools will be approved, and it is scheduled to vote July 7.

“So what has changed?” asked board President Christopher Barclay.

“What makes this an innovative opportunity for us?” asked board member Shirley Brandman.

“Why should we embrace this among the many things we’re dealing with at this tough financial time?” board member Michael Durso said.

The question-and-answer session continued for roughly two hours.

Weast and Montgomery County Public Schools staff have raised concerns about both schools’ applications.

The Community Montessori Public Charter School is an outgrowth of nonprofit Crossway Community Inc., which seeks to help women and their children overcome poverty. The pre-kindergarten to third-grade school would put children in three-year class cycles to facilitate differentiated learning and strengthen bonds between teachers, students and family, Crossway CEO Kathleen Guinan said.

“What we’re trying to do is bring resources into the school district in a partnership,” she said Tuesday. “That’s really what our approach is all about: a true partnership with Montgomery County, that we would bring, as I said, a social enterprise model into the mix.”

But MCPS staff and board members questioned how the school could focus on the economically disadvantaged while still adhering to a lottery system that gives all county students a fair chance at admission. They asked how the school would fund 3-year-olds, who are not eligible for funding under MCPS guidelines. And they questioned what the school would have to offer that the system’s schools cannot.

Seneca Creek Public Charter School would serve kindergarten through eighth grade and focus on outdoor and environmental science and is proposed for a Germantown location. Applicants proposed partnering with environmental organizations.

Weast criticized the Seneca Creek application in a memo to the board, saying it was flawed in the areas of governance, finance, academic design, facilities and special education.

“Throughout the application and presentation, the review panel was concerned about an overall lack of specificity, leadership experience and organizational capacity,” the memo said.

But Seneca Creek’s founding board president, Clarksburg resident Krisna Becker, said the application was complete and specific. During testimony Monday, she said many of her answers were taken out of context, and the panel charged with hearing the application refused to accept written answers to its own questions.

“They criticized us for not having any social studies, history, economics and politics, and we clearly had that,” she said Tuesday. “They criticized us for not connecting the curriculum with the [school system] standards, and we clearly did that. ... There were hundreds of questions, and we weren’t even expected to be able to answer them all in our oral presentation, so we put them in writing, ... but then they weren’t considered.”

MCPS staff said written addendums were not accepted to the panel’s questions because it created an overwhelming amount of paperwork for the panel to sort through.

If approved next week, the schools would have a planning year and could open as early as fall 2012.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the school board presented Weast, who retires at the end of the month, with a plaque for his 12 years of service.

“What we did, we did together, the board [and the] superintendent,’’ Weast said. “It wouldn’t have been right for us to be agreeing all the time, but we weren’t disagreeable. ... I’ve always seen my job not as superintendent, and many times not as a politician, but as a school teacher on special assignment.’’

jderbedrosian@gazette.net