Charter school contract reviewed

PALMER -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board voted Wednesday to spend a two-week period reviewing the possibility of terminating the Horizon Charter School contract. School district chief school administrator Bob Doyle recommended the termination of the contract to the board, citing problems with enrollment and testing procedures during the past school year.

"We have communicated with Horizon Charter School on a number of occasions to relay the importance of accurate student enrollment, as well as the procedures to be followed in enrolling students," wrote Doyle in the memorandum directed to the board. "Despite these communications and assurances from Horizon Charter School that it would abide by proper enrollment procedures, we recently learned that Horizon Charter School administered state-mandated achievement tests to 20 students who were not properly enrolled in the district."

The memorandum went on to say that at least 30 students who were enrolled and should have been tested were not administered the achievement tests. The memorandum recommends termination of the contract, which would include a 30-day notice for the Academic Policy Committee to appeal this decision. During the meeting, parents and teachers of Horizon brought up a number of questions, namely computer problems at the new school, and expressed a desire to test correctly.

"The concerns of enrollment and testing problems are all computer problems," said Anna Rose, a parent at Horizon and a member of the APC.

"Horizon considers it a very serious obligation to test all students who were enrolled," said Teresa Hanson, also an APC member.

Instead of voting on the memorandum on Wednesday evening, the school board decided to hold the recommendation for a two-week period, while a three-member subcommittee of the board reviews the information presented both by the district and by Horizon. Board president Mike Chmielewski, Larry DeVilbiss and Dan Contini make up the committee.

"I really think this is a sledgehammer approach in solving this problem," said Divilbiss when the board was discussing whether to make the decision on Wednesday evening. The board will review the recommendation by the district administration on April 21.

"You board members must now figure out who said what to whom," said Horizon teacher Ron Roper.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.