Charter school plan fails, again

By Robert Samuels,

Montgomery County’s school board again swatted down the applications for what would be the county’s first two charter schools on Monday.

But the fight’s not over yet. Despite a strongly worded memo written by the board president, at least one of the projects plan appeal to the state in hopes of securing an alternative public education option in one of the country’s highest performing districts.

In the six-page letter to his colleagues, President Christopher Barclay called the proposals short on specifics or shallow in educational strategy.

“The Board takes very seriously its obligation to hold applicants accountable for demonstrating both their understanding of and ability to meet the needs of all students,’’ Barclay wrote, before calling the two applications “unacceptable.’’

The rejection is the latest move in a year-long struggle to establish charter schools in the state’s largest school district. Despite the strong foothold the special programs have in the District, where nearly 40 percent of public schools are charters, the idea has yet to take root in Montgomery.

Last April, two distinct groups of parents and educators tried to change that. One would expand the pre-school Montessori program at Crossway Community, Inc. in Kensington to school that goes to sixth grade. The other, Global Garden Public Charter School, would be K-8 program with an emphasis on foreign languages. Both were rejected in June.

Unhappy with the county’s review process, the two groups appealed to the state board of education. The state seemingly sided with them, calling the county’s decision “vague” and asking that the applicants be given more specific reasons for the denials.

Ashley Del Sole, spokeswoman for the Global Garden, wasn’t pleased with the review process, either. She said she had little contact with county staff, who showed little interest in the application succeeding.

“Our understanding was they were to give us some sort of substantial feedback, so we could cure any deficiencies,’’ Del Sole said before the meeting. “Instead they fired off a letter.’’

Barclay’s letter cites specific problems with each school. He chided the Crossway application for its request to hire teachers without state certification and not adequately describing expectations for students in the youngest grades.

According to Barclay’s memo, Global Garden also flawed because it had an academic program that too heavily relied on “ineffective” drilling of reading and math skills. It also didn’t present a facility large enough to house its proposed 420 students, he wrote.

Del Sole said her group is lobbying for state legislation that would help to standardize the charter school approval in the state, a process she thinks relies to heavily on the whims of specific county boards. She also plans on appealing to the state again, in hopes they will mandate that the county approve the application.

“I think there’s a a thought that if MCPS allows charter schools in the system that it indicates the school system is failure,’’ Del Sole said. “But it only shows that it’s a place to allow for innovation and potentional new ways of educating children.