North Hills Board Rejects Charter School

A majority of the North Hills School Board members remained quiet Tuesday on the subject of their unanimous rejection Monday night of a Provident Charter School application that sought to set up within the district's boundaries. 

The board voted on the issue Monday during a work session meeting in order to meet the mandate that it render a decision within 75 days after a public hearing about the application.

The board members cast the votes without comment, with the exception of board member Jeff Meyer, who said only that questions he had had about the application were answered but that "unfortunately, I'm still going to vote no." 

The charter school planned to open a new facility to be built at 173 Cemetery Lane by September 2013 and aimed to provide special education to 336 students with dyslexia, a language skills disability that affects their reading, spelling, writing and pronunciation of words, according to its application. The school planned to cater to students in grades two through eight from throughout the Pittsburgh region. 

Ed Wielgus, the board's past president, said Tuesday that he thought the leaders behind the charter school were well intended, but the already provides equal services to those children in need of the special attention. 

"When I compared the educational value, I couldn't see the justification that this school could do better than what we're already doing," Wielgus said.

School board member Lou Nudi said Tuesday that he was concerned, in particular, about separating students with learning disabilities from the general school population. 

"Special education students are supposed to be educated in the least restrictive environment," Nudi said. "This is a departure from educational mandates." 

Both also expressed some concern about the general reputation of charter schools and the funding that would be diverted from the public schools to the charter school. 

"I don't know how it would make sense to our taxpayers," Wielgus said. 

"The jury is still out on what these schools are providing in educational value," he said, adding that he was speaking generally and not specifically about Provident charter school's application. 

"You can't debate the fact that it's a noble cause," he said of the charter school's application. 

Nudi said he thinks charter schools have gotten out of hand—that while they were originally intended to be an alternative to under-performing schools, people who develop real estate now see them as good business.  

"Research charter schools. Look at who runs them," he said. "It's all on the backs of taxpayers." 

Charter schools are funded by billing the home school districts of the children who attend, based on the districts' expenditures per student and a formula set out in state law. The Provident charter school's board estimates that within a 10-mile radius of the city of Pittsburgh, about 3,146 students from 14 public school districts and 63 private and parochial schools would qualify for the special education. 

For the North Hills School District, the cost would be about $20,000 per student, school district officials have said. About 60 North Hills students would qualify for the charter school, according to the charter school's market study and a district estimate. 

, with only one speaking against it at that time. 

A message left for board president Timothy Burnett through the district's spokesman Tuesday afternoon was not returned by publication time. Phone messages left with board members Thomas Kelly, Tom Baker, Arlene Bender and Kathy Reid that afternoon were not returned by publication time. 

Board members Meyer and Sharon Schrim could not be reached by press time. 

A statement released by school district spokesman Tina Vojtko at 6 p.m. Tuesday said the board denied the application based on four factors: 

• "Provident Charter School does not meet provisions of federal and state education law. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) requires students to be taught in the least restrictive environment. IDEA specifically states that special education students, which would include dyslexic students, should be educated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent possible. In addition, Pennsylvania’s Gaskin Settlement Agreement further articulates that children with disabilities are to be educated in regular education classrooms."
  
  
• "The application failed to demonstrate how the proposed charter school would enhance students’ learning opportunities and offer substantively unique and innovative educational options for the community." 
  
  
• "Provident Charter School submitted an application for a regular charter school, which operates within a single a school district. However, all supporting documentation and presentation materials indicate its intention to serve as a regional charter school, which requires a different application and process.  Within its presentation, Provident Charter School officials specifically stated that North Hills School District was not selected due to educational need but rather physical location."
  
  
• "The applicant failed to demonstrate sustainable support within the school district community. Although there were more than 200 public comments and letters of support/non-support regarding Provident Charter School—including letters from far outside the intended service area—only 11 were from residents of the North Hills School District. Of the 11 individuals, five indicated support of the charter school and six were against."

Curtis Kossman, an architect and president of the Provident Charter School's board of directors said the district's denial of the charter school's application was expected. 

"Unfortunately, 99 percent of all charter schools are denied at the school district level," he said. 

According to the state Department of Education,a charter school can appeal the denial if it gathers signatures from at least 2 percent of the total number of the local school district's residents or 1,000 residents, whichever is less.

The petition must then be presented to the Court of Common Pleas, which forwards it to the Charter School Appeal Board.

Kossman said an appeal was likely.

"We choses the location based on serving the greater Pittsburgh area, not necessarily one school district," he said.

"What we're offering is a choice for parents," he said. "We're not saying all dyslexic children should be educated in a special school."