Charter battles Philly district over its expansion

The leader of the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School says he believed the school had verbal approval from the Philadelphia School District to open a high school, so the charter school began adding those grades in 2007 - even though it received no funds for additional students.

The new, five-year operating charter the School Reform Commission granted the school in Northern Liberties in June requires it to phase out the high school.

Now, the charter school is calling on the SRC to reconsider, allow it to add students, and pay it $1.7 million the charter says it is owed for enrolling more students than the 675 specified in its operating charter.

Without SRC action, several hundred students at the K-12 charter could be forced to find new schools next month, charter officials warned.

"We have 925 children," said Walter D. Palmer, founder and board president. "We have to have the funding for them."

The school at 910 N. Sixth St. will hold a rally at 6 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium to alert parents and community members about the "enrollment crisis" and to urge them to demand district funding for all students.

As part of the campaign, the school's supporters have been e-mailing SRC Chairman Robert L. Archie Jr. and Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.

Palmer, who was accompanied by Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell, met Monday with Archie and other district officials to try to resolve the problem.

Palmer said Archie told him the school could ask the commission at its meeting Wednesday to reconsider the charter's request.

"Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School is out of compliance for enrollment," Lisa Mastoon, a district spokeswoman, said Wednesday. "The school was never authorized by the SRC to serve more than 675 students."

Mastoon said she did not know if the SRC had received a request to take up the charter's proposal next week.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has told the district it is not obligated to pay for students beyond the 675 specified in its signed charter agreement, she said.

The school, which opened in 2000, originally enrolled students from K-8. Palmer said Paul Vallas, the former district CEO, encouraged the school to add a high school program.

Palmer said that although the school was repeatedly assured that the SRC would approve the high school expansion, the commission never did. He blamed the school's woes on a series of mistakes and blunders by district officials over the years.

A year ago, the SRC gave the charter permission to enroll students in grades nine through 11 for the 2009-10 school year alone. That resolution said the school would be required to end its high school program the following year unless the SRC voted to approve it. Total authorized enrollment remained at 675 students.

Palmer said that, in the spring, Leadership Learning Partners again applied to expand. But the school was not listed among the 22 charters the district said were eligible for grade changes and expansions based on academic performance and other criteria in the district's charter policy.

In June, the SRC allowed 17 charters to add a total of 1,042 students in the fall.

At that time, commission members said they were trying to balance the needs of charters with the district's finances. The additional students will cost the district $7.3 million in the new academic year.

Palmer said he was not told why his school's request for additional students and the high school program were not authorized.

The new operating charter permits the school to enroll students from K-12 in 2010-11, but scales back the high school grades in subsequent years so that the school has returned to its original K-8 model by the fall of 2014.

"The onus is not on us," Palmer said. "We did everything we were required to do."