SRC to consider closing charter for foster students

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission will hold a hearing Friday on closing the nation's first charter school for students in foster care, and no one from the troubled school will present a case for keeping it open.

Arise Academy Charter High School in West Oak Lane will not participate in the hearing, it said, because the SRC's new policy on terminating charters gives it broad power to close schools and makes the process unfair. Although other schools have agreed to close after the SRC said it would not renew their charters, Arise is the first to elect not to participate in a scheduled hearing.

"Every dollar that we spend on a process where the district has the ability to unilaterally revoke the charter is a dollar we're not spending on kids," Stephen Wanner, Arise board chairman, said Thursday.

Acting CEO Roberta Trombetta said Arise, at 2116 E. Haines St., would use its taxpayer funds and money from private donors to develop a long-term solution to ensure that its 84 students are in a safe, stable place where they can learn.

"This has never been about the charter," Wanner said. "This is about helping the most at-risk kids we have in the city."

It was unclear what will happen next.

"It's unchartered territory," Trombetta said.

District officials, meanwhile, say they will hold the hearing to gather evidence to support a nonrenewal decision.

Friday's session was scheduled after the SRC voted in January not to renew Arise's charter, on the grounds that it has been plagued with academic, financial, and management problems since it opened in 2009.

The SRC was set to hold a nonrenewal hearing in August 2012, but put it on hold to give Arise a chance to make changes.

This January, district officials said the school had failed to meet academic and financial benchmarks and had not made all promised changes.

The district said Arise's test scores were lower than both district and charter-school averages. In 2012, only 6 percent of Arise students scored proficient on state standardized tests in math and 18 percent in reading.

The district also said the school was beset by high turnover of students and staff, and had enrolled fewer students than the 200 contained in its charter.

"The school made some mistakes in the past, but all it was asking was for a chance to turn around," said Trombetta, who arrived as acting CEO in August.

"We are having amazing results this year," she said. Attendance has averaged 75 percent and was 83 percent this month.

Trombetta said she limited enrollment this year to 100 "to make sure we could provide quality."

Trombetta said students who have been traumatized by multiple foster care placements need stability.

"This is for kids who have been bounced around," she said. "I think we have a moral obligation to them."