Appeal-board vote could signal end of Germantown charter school

HARRISBURG - The state yesterday effectively denied the troubled Germantown Settlement Charter School's appeal to continue operating, likely making it the first charter closed by the school district since the experimental schools began opening in 1997.

The state Charter School Appeal Board voted 6-0 in favor of the School Reform Commission's motion that the charter failed to file a proper appeal within the required 30 days of the commission's Oct. 15 decision to close the school.

Although district officials said that they could shutter Germantown Settlement immediately, they said in a statement that it would likely close the school in June.

"We are very concerned about the families, and doing what's best for the families," Catherine Balsley, the district's executive director for charter schools, said after the hearing.

"We're disappointed," said Cornelia Swinson, acting president of the Germantown charter school's board. She said that she would talk to other members of the board and legal counsel before deciding how to respond to the appeal board's decision.

The school has a right to appeal yesterday's decision to Commonwealth Court.

The action comes after more than 10 months of wrangling between the middle school and the commission, which voted in April and again in October to close the school due to a mountain of academic and financial failings.

The 5th-through-8th-grade school, on Germantown Avenue near Logan Street, opened in 1999 and was granted a five-year renewal in 2003.

Since then, the school has failed to file numerous reports and audits; most students consistently failed to reach yearly academic progress, and the school could not maintain the state-required level of teachers who are certified in their subjects, according to the district.

Neither Swinson nor district officials at the hearing could say how many students remain at the school, which has been shedding pupils and teachers amid the turmoil.

The district said in a statement that next week it would hold a meeting for parents of Germantown Settlement students to inform them of the board's decision and the options for transferring their children to other schools.

The Delaware Valley Charter School, down the street from Germantown Settlement, last week asked the reform commission if it could take over Germantown if it closes, but the commission has not answered.

The appeal board also heard the Renaissance Charter's appeal of the reform commission's decision to shut it down. The appeal board has a month to rule in the matter.

The Mount Airy charter also opened in 1999 and was renewed for five years in 2003. Like Germantown Settlement, the reform commission flagged Renaissance Charter for numerous problems, ranging from too many failing students and not enough certified teachers to missing audits and annual reports.

Despite Renaissance's stated mission to be a science and technology school, the school has no science lab and one computer lab, Allison Petersen, the commission's attorney, told the board.

Jane Shields, the charter's lawyer, said that many of the problems have been corrected and that Renaissance isn't the only charter in the city in which students struggle to meet standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

She said that the commission has done a poor job of communicating with the charter about problems.

Beyond that, Shields said, students are actually learning, thanks to a 9th period that has been added to the day and a strong art program.

"The children love that school," Shields said. "They feel safe. They feel their teachers care about them." *