By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 25, 2006; B01
When Sasha Bruce Public Charter School senior La'Toya Daniels needs help with algebra, she turns to classmate Cyntrea Johnson or the math teacher she calls "Ma" -- Nakita West.
Social studies teacher Zoe Duskin greets students like Lonnie Lowsert with a hug.
And Sally Herrmann, the interim principal, doesn't talk about being in charge but about working together with her colleagues.
"Family" is the word that comes up most often when parents, students and teachers at Sasha Bruce describe the school on Capitol Hill. Teachers give and receive hugs. Administrators favor a team approach. Students learn from one another.
But their close-knit community may be broken up today by the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which will vote on whether to revoke the school's charter, effectively closing the school. The charter board, an independent body that authorizes and oversees 33 District charter schools with more than 13,000 students, has concerns about the school's finances.
According to the board, the school overspent its budget in 2002, 2003 and 2005 and is projected to have a $150,000 deficit for 2006. It also has been late sending in its quarterly financial statements and annual financial audits, board officials said. Academically, the school's reading and math test scores have been below the yearly benchmarks set out by the federal No Child Left Behind law.
"This is not about mismanagement or fraud. This is just poor management," said Thomas A. Nida, chairman of the five-member charter board. "Good financial management will underpin good academic performance. When a school struggles and can't seem to right itself in a reasonably timely fashion, then we have to figure out what is truly best in the long term for the children involved."
The questions arose as the school was poised to start a year in which it would graduate its first class -- a defining event in the school's short history. Sasha Bruce, which completed its fifth year of operation in June, has moved from an old warehouse with 88 students to a rented building at 13th and E streets NE with 239 students in five grades in middle and high school.
Deborah Shore, who is on the school's board of directors, admits that the school got off to a shaky start. The founding principal quit before the school opened in 2001. For four years, it was led by an executive director and two principals.
The public charter board grew concerned and gave the school two "notices of concern" in 2004, placed it on probation last year and issued a "charter warning" in January.
A year ago, recognizing its troubles, the Sasha Bruce board made dramatic changes, Shore said. It hired a consultant, changed its administrative structure and hired several new teachers. This summer, in an effort to improve accountability, Shore said, the board had lined up a new vice principal and was working to strengthen the curriculum, among other measures.
"It's a stunning position to have worked so hard and to have believed we were on the course of turning things around," said Shore, executive director of Sasha Bruce Youthwork Inc, the nonprofit group that founded the school. "There's a wonderful turnaround effort happening, and they've stopped it in its tracks. There's something really thoughtless there, no thinking about the kids and families."
The public charter board has revoked only two other charters: SouthEast Academy for Scholastic Excellence in 2005 and the New School for Enterprise and Development in June. Like Sasha Bruce and all charter operations, the board reviewed the schools after five years to see whether they were financially and educationally viable.
The arguments between Sasha Bruce and the public charter board echo national debates, said Jeannie Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a national nonprofit group that researches charters. Schools usually feel misunderstood by the oversight board, Allen said, while the board is looking for good financial stewardship as a strong indicator of academic success.
"Leadership means you're organized and you do things well on all levels," Allen said. "One of the underpinnings of charter schools is to try to demonstrate to all schools that you can have a successful school, even under the most trying circumstances."
Sasha Bruce Youthwork has worked with youth for 32 years and founded the school as an expansion of its mission to help vulnerable children.
Some of the students at Sasha Bruce have come from foster care or live in neighborhoods where they feel unsafe, said Rachel Williams, the school's full-time social worker. Others are being raised by grandparents, and school officials estimate that 30 percent of the student body needs special education.
As Brenda Wills awaits the board vote, she has been calling around for weeks to different charter schools -- Hyde; Cesar Chavez; Washington Mathematics, Science and Technology -- seeking a space for her niece, Lolita Marable, 17, who will be a senior. Wills said the schools had long waiting lists or no room at all.
Her niece gets easily distracted, Wills said, so she is afraid to send her to the local high school, Anacostia. Wills said Sasha Bruce's small class sizes give her niece the individual attention she needs.
"Listening to the discussion about the budget and the money, it sounds like there are genuine concerns," Wills said. "But get someone new in there to replace them. Why shut down a whole school?"
