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Philadelphia's School Reform Commission voted unanimously today to close the troubled Germantown Settlement Charter School.
The commission also voted to close the 212-student Renaissance Charter School in Mt. Airy despite appeals from its principal, Alana Walls that it stay open. No one spoke on behalf of Germantown Settlement, which is also under investigation by federal and state law enforcement agencies.
The vote--a final vote to close both schools--marks a first in 11 years of charters in Philadelphia.
Wells said that the Renaissance charter would appeal the ruling. "Its obviously very disheartening," she said of the decision.
Both schools were found to have failed to meet district rules for academics, teacher qualifications and reporting; the Germantown charter also has serious financial problems.
The schools can remain open if the operators appeal the SRC's decision. If no appeal is filed, the schools can be closed as soon as 31 days from now, the time frame for an appeal to be lodged.
Emanuel V. Freeman, president of Germantown Settlement Charter's board, has said the school would appeal any decision to close it.
"We will continue to appeal at every conceivable level," Freeman said in an interview last week for a Inquirer story published Sunday on the school's crisis. Freeman could not be reached today to comment on the SRC's decision. Princiapl Jeffrey Williams confirmed that the charter's board has decided to appeal.
District officials said they planned to send letters to parents and to meet with them to explain their options.
In April, the five-member SRC took the first step toward closing Germantown Settlement when it voted unanimously against renewing its five-year operating charter because of its poor academic record, lack of a defined curriculum and fiscal manangement problems.
The commission said that financial documents the school submitted to the district raised questions about the school's solvency.
The school enrolls 456 fifth through eight graders in buildings on Germantown and Wayne Avenues.
In April the commission also denied a renewal for the Renaissance Charter sixth through eighth graders because of high turnover of staff and board members, shortage of certified teachers and low student test scores.
Both schools opened in 1999. Public hearings were held this summer.
Appeals would go to the state Charter School Appeals Board; its decision could then be taken to the state courts. The appeals process could take months, said Catherine Balsley, the executive director of the Philadelphia district charter school office.
Since the first charters opened in Philadelphia in 1999, the SRC has come close to forcing four of them to close. All were granted new charters after pleading their cases during the hearings.
One charter, the Center for Economics and Law, a high school, closed down abruptly on its own in 2003 after the district said it would not renew its charter because the school was beset by high teacher turnover, had failed to give mandatory state tests to 10th graders one year and had been rocked by allegations of serious financial mismanagement.
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