Left, School Board Members Kim Shirek, Lisa Totten and Bob Larson all voted against a proposed charter school, saying the district doesn’t have the money to support it. (City-Times photo)

Board approves moving ahead with charter school geared to attract homeschoolers, turns down timeline for approval of funding

By Donnelly Clare

The Stevens Point School Board Monday night spent over two hours debating the cost and need of a proposed charter school in Stevens Point.

Project leaders of the Jackson Middle School for Expeditionary Learning have already secured a $225,000 grant for training and implementing the program. District costs for the first year of the new school program are estimated to be over $980,000.

Project leader Connie Negaard, principal at Ben Franklin Junior High, said the charter school would have room for about 150 students who otherwise aren’t “challenged in traditional classrooms”, and is largely targeted towards pulling homeschooled students back into the public school fold.

Should more than 150 students apply for the charter school, Negaard said names will be drawn in a blind lottery.

“One reason it’s unique is because it’s a smaller class size,” Negaard said, who reminded Board Members that the district’s alternative high school was first implemented at Emerson Elementary prior changing forms and relocating downtown.

“Now, you wouldn’t think of not having it,” she said. “That’s how things happen. We’re so committed to believing that it would work. We understand the financials, but we believe there’s a need in our district and we’re not going to find anything different for our kids unless we try something different.”

Board Member Chris Scott said she “fully supports” the charter school because it’s a new way of learning which could spread throughout the district.

“Something happens in the 6, 7, 8 grades where students fall away,” Scott said. “I’m looking at this and it feels so right.”

The school would be administered by a governing board made up of current local public school teachers, UWSP educators and area business professionals and would be located inside the former Jackson Elementary School, which closed in 2005 during a series of cuts made by the board due to declining enrollment and budget constraints.

According to Tom Owens, business services director for the district, the governing board is offering four options for the school board to consider. The board will need to decide whether to turn the project down, to implement it next fall or during the second semester, or to delay the project until the 2015-16 school year.

But those options could now be limited because the board opted to not approve a timeline charter school leaders asked for. In a 5-4 vote, board members turned down a proposal to have their minds made up about the future of the charter school no later than January 27, 2014. Board Members did approve the overall proposal by a vote of 6-3, but said next month was too soon to decide and there were too many questions remaining about funding the new school and whether it’s sustainable.

According to Owens, homeschooled students could rejoin the district and bring with them additional funding from state aid, making it more likely the charter school could pay for itself. He said there’s also an option to share space inside Jackson with another district program, thereby sharing the costs between different funding sources.

“We have an opportunity to bring in students that are homeschooled- if that happens it creates new revenue in terms of revenue limit for the district. Whether or not we get any (new students), or how many we would get, of course, I have no idea,” he said.

Board members said they all agreed the project was a good idea in theory, but some questioned both the need and the financial sense attached to it. Board Member Lisa Totten said any potential decision on the charter school should be postponed until the results of several large-scale district- wide studies on facilities, grade alignment and graduation requirements are completed, which she said could change the entire structure of the district.

“I’m having a hard time understanding how this board can continue to approve projects that may very well go against what is ultimately determined as our end game,” Totten said. “Was there a purpose to these studies, or were these studies done to give the appearance that we care about doing due diligence when we don’t? We have cut and limited programs in an interest to balance our budget with direct, negative impacts on our students- all while approving major projects including the Life Skills Center, Plover-Whiting sprinkler system and electrical energy updates. So I ask; if we had no money for the programs we had to cut, how do we have funds available for these major projects?”

Totten also said the lack of community involvement in the planning for the charter school was a red flag for her.

Board Member Bob Larson said he objected to several aspects of the proposal, including the lack of involvement from area parents. He and Board Member Kim Shirek asked fellow Board Members Terry Rothmann and Renae Sheibley, who they say were involved in the planning process of the school, to recuse themselves from the discussion and vote, saying their involvement was a conflict of interest. While neither obliged, Sheibley did say she only “sat in” on three of the meetings and was not involved in the planning.

“We do not have the money for this,” Larson said. “I’d like to know from the administration- what programs do you plan to cut and how many employees do you plan to lay off to make this thing work? The board spent time and money on four studies; facilities, grade level configuration, graduation requirements, and the annual schedule review. How can we sign a contract before we know what their recommendations will be when presented in the spring of 2014?”

Owens, along with Weninger, told Board Members the district had about $19 million in the district’s general fund, though a recent audit of the district explained that decreasing the fund balance could potentially lower the district’s A2 credit rating.

According to the findings of the district’s facilities study, which was completed this fall, Ben Franklin Junior High currently has 775 students but has the capacity to serve 1,306. P.J. Jacob’s Junior High is also operating under capacity, with 748 students and the facilities for 1,096.

According to Negaard, her school would have to “shut down an entire wing” to accommodate the charter school, which wasn’t realistic.

“It’s so project- based, and there’s not bells every 45 minutes or students passing each other in the halls every 45 minutes. There might be a project that goes for 3 hours. It’s so integrated, there’s just not enough space at Ben (Franklin),” she said.

“I couldn’t look the taxpayers in the eye if I voted to reopen Jackson School,” Larson said. “These numbers say loud and clear to not reopen that school.

Larson was in the minority Monday, who along with Board Members Lisa Totten and Kim Shirek voted against the proposal.

Jen Zach, a member of the charter school’s advisory board, said job openings for the charter school would be posted once details of the 5- year contract between the school and the board have been agreed to.