Chester school board postpones charter vote

Confronted by an angry crowd of several hundred charter school parents, some waving signs saying "Afraid of Competition" and "Board Should Resign," the new state-appointed board that runs the Chester Upland School District postponed a vote last night on whether to cap charter school enrollment at its current levels.

After about half an hour of statements to the board by residents who were both for and against the cap, with many more people set to talk, board chairman C. Marc Woolley told the increasingly restive audience of about 300: "Emotions are running high. For the sake of everybody here, we are going to set a special meeting regarding this subject." To the boos of charter school supporters who wanted to see the resolution voted down last night, he said that a meeting devoted solely to a discussion and vote on the cap would be held on April 18, tentatively at 4 p.m.

Right now, charters enroll 38 percent of all students in the troubled district and half of all students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The three charters in the district have 2,566 students; the non-charter enrollment is 4,253.

Saying that charter schools are draining money out of the regular school system at a growing and unsustainable rate, the new board, appointed by the Rendell administration earlier this month, was set to vote on a resolution that would have capped charter enrollment at 2,573, close to its current level. This year, the district is paying charters $6,877 for each regular student and $18,877 for each special-education student. The district payments to charter schools total $24 million this year, out of a total budget of $85 million.

Just last year, a Republican-appointed board had authorized charter expansion; under that agreement, the 1,980-student Chester Community Charter School, for example, could have increased enrollment to 3,005 in four years. The proposed action by the new board, which Woolley said is intended to strike a balance between the charters and the ability of the regular schools to survive financially, would have canceled that arrangement.

Woolley said that the new board, which was appointed under a state empowerment law that governs academically and financially distressed districts, has the right to cancel that agreement if the financial needs of the district required it.

Steven Lee, the chief administrative officer of the Chester Community Charter, told the board to the cheers of many that it would have a fight on its hands if it capped the charters.

Belvie Hilyard, the mother of two Chester Community Charter students, said that at the school, "my kids are learning; it's very much needed." She added that at the charter, "they have no tolerance for disruption and misbehavior. They're all about learning. I don't think that happens in the regular public school."

Not everybody in the audience was against the cap. Anthony Johnson, the father of a Toby Farms Elementary School student, said that for four years, his daughter had been at the Village Charter School, another Chester Upland charter. The school "failed her," he said, adding that when his daughter transferred to the regular public school, she was far behind where she should have been.

Portia West, the mother of a Chester High School ninth grader, said that while she commended the charter school parents for "supporting their children," nevertheless, "I support the cap. Charters are hurting the public schools. They're taking too much money from them."

As board chairman Woolley tabled the motion to cap the charters and set the April 18 meeting, many charter parents booed, and some said the move was intended to cut down on the crowd at the next gathering. "I get off work at 5; they're trying to avoid us," said Virgie Blakney, the mother of three Chester Community Charter students. "But it won't work; I'll be there anyway."