Charter schools seek sites in county that has refused them

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005

Five charter schools groups are applying for spaces in the county system, but they face an uphill struggle with a county school board that has turned down every application except one. The charter school approved by that application has yet to open.

New funding rules that limit the per-pupil payment of state funds may make sustaining a charter school even more difficult, said Patricia Peterson, executive director of the Turning Point Foundation in Cheverly.

A recent court ruling upheld the school board’s plan to provide only about $5,800 per student to charter schools compared to the $8,500 it spends on each student in other public schools.

‘‘The history has been that it’s been difficult (for charter schools) in Prince George’s County,” Peterson said.

‘‘This is new water for everyone,” she said, referring to the funds ruling.

‘‘It will be difficult to run a school on the [$5,800] plan [per pupil] that the board has laid out.”

Deborah Driver, of Fort Washington, says her organization, Potomac Charter School, is in the midst of its third application to the Prince George’s County School Board for approval of a charter school for the Fort Washington⁄Accokeek area.

The first application in 2004 was not accepted by the board. The state Board of Education had to compel the county board to create a mechanism to review applications, carrying out a law passed in 2003.

The application for the 2004-2005 school year was rejected by the county board and was not appealed quickly enough to the state board, so it too failed.

Prospects don’t look good this year either, Driver said.

Potomac Charter School has not been asked to participate in a second round of discussions on charter school applications.

‘‘We’ve been to meetings held Oct. 27, but we haven’t received an invitation to the meetings this week on charter schools applications,” Driver said.

She finds the board’s hostility discouraging.

‘‘We’ve been stalled at the Prince George’s board level,” she said. ‘‘There’s strong support for a quality charter school here in Fort Washington.”

But Howard Stone, vice chair of the school board, disagreed with Driver, saying charter school applicants can and do get fair consideration.

‘‘That’s not true, there’s no hostility,” Stone said. ‘‘I’m personally against charter schools because they take money away from the public schools, but if they’re going to educate our children, then I’m for them.‘‘I’m going to go into the applications with an open mind, and I’ll probably support most, if not all, of the applications.”

Charter schools are public schools funded with public dollars and staffed by public school teachers. But they have their own leadership boards that determine the direction of the educational programs.

Charter schools must demonstrate that they offer special programs for public school students not offered in standard classroom settings.

Last school year, the school board approved Lincoln Charter School to open in Marlow Heights. But representatives of the school sued the board because it would not receive the same per-pupil funding as students in regular public schools.

The county argued that it only should pay money that was directed towards instruction and not towards transportation, plant maintenance and other functions that the charter organization would take care of.

The state board of education ruled in Lincoln Charter School’s favor, saying the board had to pay more money. But a ruling by the county Circuit Court said the state board was in error and the county board has the final say over funding for public charter schools.

Though Lincoln received approval, it has yet to open its doors.

Michael DePass, representative for Lincoln could not be reached for comment.

Five schools are applying for charter status: Excel Academy, Hyde-Turning Point, Imagine Schools (which handled Lincoln’s application last year) McKinney-Byrd Academy and Potomac Charter School.

Iris T. Metts, former schools superintendent and now a consultant for three of the applicants (Excel, Potomac and Hyde-Turning Point) said that the problem lies in the Public Charter School Act.

‘‘We need a second look at strengthening the charter school law,” said Metts, head of A-Plus Choice Solutions. ‘‘It’s going to be difficult. We need a lot of grants from the state and the like to function.”

Metts said the schools she represented were operating on the assumption that the county school system would not provide enough funding, so they would have to look to other sources — like grant money from the state and federal governments and private foundations — to get their schools open.

‘‘We’re going to have to go out and find the money,” Metts said.

Driver said that despite the board’s lack of enthusiasm for charter schools, her group is prepared to move ahead and open if their plan is approved.

‘‘We think that amount (of per-pupil funds) is ridiculously low,” Driver said. ‘‘But we’ll take it because it’s all that’s available.”

E-mail Guy Leonard at gleonard@gazette.net.