Superintendent Willis: 'Charter School Could Force Peekskill Schools to Cut Sports, Other Programs'

Peekskill school Superintendent James Willis said during Tuesday’s school board meeting that he isn’t opposed to charter schools.

But he believes the mechanisms put in place by the state for the funding of charter schools hurt public schools in the long run.

“The problem with the way charter schools are funded is that they drain state aid away from the public schools and there’s no way to make that up,” Willis said. “And it’s a cumulative affect over the years. You add more and more kids to the charter schools and it drains more and it gets to a point in time where you get no more transitional aid for those students, but you still have to pay for those students.”

A charter school called the Guardian Academy is being proposed for the building currently occupied by the Assumption School, which is closing at the end of this school year. The school, if it receives state approval, would open during the 2014-2015 school year and serve 200 students in grades K-3.

The school would then add another grade each year, before maxing out at the eighth grade. Students would be enrolled using a lottery system, with Peekskill students receiving preferential treatment. Slots would be opened up to students in neighboring school districts if enough Peekskill students don't enroll.

Audrey Warn, one of the people organizing the charter school, her group expected to receive some feedback on their application to the state Education Department sometime in the late summer. An actual approval and granting of charter wouldn’t come from the state until sometime in November or December.

According to the state Education Department, a charter school’s funding is dependent on the number of students it serves. The funding is determined through a per pupil formula that is determined by the state and paid through the district the child lives in.

Charters schools are restricted from levying taxes or charging tuition, but school districts are required to factor them in when making their calculations for the state property tax cap.

Branwen MacDonald, a parent in the Peekskill school district worried about the strain the charter school will create on the existing public school system. More than $16,000 in state aid per student would be allocated to the charter school.

Those are funds that would have normally gone to the school district. Although the district would receive 80 percent in transitional aid to ease the loss of those students, that aid would stop after the fourth year and the district would lose out on more than $6 million in funding in the fifth year.

“I’m just concerned,” MacDonald said. “What could be possibly be cut at $6.2 million?”

Willis said at least 70 teachers would have to be cut.

“We would lose a lot of additional programs, we would kiss sports goodbye, music programs, all those things that are not mandated would be cut,” Willis said. “That’s how devastating it would be.”

Willis suggested that community members reach out to the state Education Department

“The state decides,” Willis said. “But like any good public entity, the more they here from the public, the better.”

Board members also said it was important that they get as much information on the charter school proposal to the public as possible.

“People aren’t aware of the facts and that’s really essential to this community,” Trustee Tuesday McDonald said.