Charters learn fates: Reach to close, Gateway spared

Secretary of Education Mark Murphy and the State Board of Education chose Thursday to close the Reach Academy for Girls charter school but allowed Gateway Lab School to stay open with an ultimatum that it quickly improve test scores or face closure.

Murphy postponed a decision on Family Foundations Academy, saying “potentially serious allegations of financial mismanagement” had emerged in the past few days and that regulators needed time to look them over.

Reach is the state’s only all-girls’ public school, serving about 380 students. Gateway is a charter dedicated to serving students with disabilities, behavior issues and other problems, with an enrollment of about 210 students.

Charter schools face renewal every few years to make sure they are performing as well as expected. That is a tradeoff for the extra flexibility they receive compared to traditional schools, said Jennifer Nagourney, director of the state’s charter school office.

The Department of Education’s charter school accountability committee had recommended both Gateway and Reach be closed, citing test scores that suggest students are far behind academically and not growing as quickly as required under their charters.

Those two schools have been on the hot seat for months, but the concerns about Family Foundations are newer.

Murphy said his office received a 200-page report alleging financial mismanagement by the school administration the day before the decision was due on its renewal. He said the Department needs more time to get to the bottom of those claims.

Several board members said they agreed the Department needed that time, but worried that the deadline for parents to use the state’s school choice system is nearing.

Reach has been in trouble with the state for some time.

Last year, Murphy and the Board revoked the school’s charter, which meant the school should have closed over the summer. But the school sued, arguing it was discriminatory to shutter an all-girls school while leaving an all-boys’ school open.

A judge required the state to keep Reach open for another year while he sifted through arguments. The state and school worked out a deal for the school to stay open until the end of its review cycle this year.

Murphy said the school’s academic performance was simply too low for them to allow it to stay open, with test scores at the bottom of charter and traditional schools. Because Murphy chose not to renew Reach’s charter, the board did not vote.

“Last year, the school leaders said they just need one more year,” Murphy said. “In one year, the nominal growth is not enough.”

Many Reach parents have vehemently protested a possible closure, saying their daughters are learning confidence there and thriving in its unique environment.

Lloyd Casson, chair of Reach’s board, broke meeting protocol to speak after Murphy’s decision was announced.

“Reach Academy, the board and the administration, is not under any illusion where we are academically,” Casson said. “We also feel and believe that what we’ve seen and begun to see is that we’re on an upward trajectory.”

Casson said he was “stupefied” that other charters got approved with conditions while Reach got the axe.

In sparing Gateway, Murphy said it was not appropriate to judge the school under the same rules as other schools given that it serves mostly special-needs students.

The Department has approved Gateway to be judged under alternative rules that acknowledge their unique student population. But the school did not apply for that exception until last year, which means the school is technically being judged like any other school.

Though it would not have met the alternative framework this year, the school would have been significantly closer to those goals.

The state has set a big condition in approving the school: it must meet the academic standards of the alternative framework by the 2015-2016 school year or the state will move to close it.

Gateway’s renewal narrowly passed the state board on a 4-3 vote: board members Jorge Melendez, Pat Heffernan, and Teri Quinn Gray voted against it.

“I know we’re seeing some good things going on there now, but I think the information we have in front of us shows that this has not been a very well-run school,” Heffernan said.

Earlier this year, Murphy and the board revoked the charter of the Maurice J. Moyer Academic Institute, pointing to sagging test scores, problems with attendance and discipline, and inadequate services for special needs students.

The City of Wilmington and Moyer itself each sued to keep the school open, arguing city students deserve a public high school in the city limits after the city’s messy desegregation fight pulled traditional high schools into the suburbs decades ago.

Murphy and the board voted Thursday to renew four other charters: Delaware Academy of Public Safety and Security, Eastside Charter, Las Americas ASPIRA Academy and Odyssey Charter School.

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.