Fronteras lease shows system gap

PALMER — A five-year lease agreement between the new Fronteras Spanish Immersion Charter School and Crossroads Community Church was approved this past week by the Mat-Su Borough School Board, but not without debate.

The board’s approval of the lease doesn’t mean it likes the deal or the short amount of time the board had to learn of the lease’s details. When a charter school is approved, the Mat-Su Borough, not the school district, sends out requests for lease agreements. It’s up to the Borough to decide which lease to choose before sending it to the school district for approval.

Board Member Colleen Hamblen said that process puts the school district at a disadvantage. In the case of the Fronteras lease, only one lease was offered for the board to consider. Hamblen calls it being “strong-armed” by the system.

“The Borough makes decisions we don’t have control over, which puts us in a position for negotiation on a point of weakness instead of a position of strength,” Hamblen said.

The Fronteras lease with Crossroads includes a $50,000 fee the school has agreed to pay up front, giving the school the right to cancel its lease. The amount of Fronteras’ monthly rent is nearly $24,000, and the school will have to pay utilities.

Some board members said they didn’t like the numbers when asked to approve the lease Wednesday, but said it was too late to do anything about it.

Student representative Daniel Hagen from Palmer High School — a non-voting member of the board — reminded his colleagues if they did not approve the lease that night, Fronteras would be homeless and unable to open for classes this fall.

The board ended up approving the lease with Jim Colver casting the lone “no” vote.

On Friday, Board President Sarah Welton echoed Hamblen’s desire to be more involved with the selection process in the future, saying there may be a need to revamp the way a charter school’s location is chosen.

“We should know what the [request for proposal is],” Welton said of the Borough’s initial search for a willing lessor. “We didn’t even get that.”

Fronteras’ governing board chairman, Robert Kalander, said he also sees the disconnect between the Borough and school district.

“Whereas the Borough was aware of this because they produced the RFP [request for proposal], they weren’t keeping the school district in the loop, so to speak,” Kalander said.

Emerson Krueger, a Borough planner, said an amendment is forthcoming for the Borough Assembly that, if passed, would include members of the school board on an evaluation team charged with choosing a charter school’s home.

When Fronteras opens it will teach part of the school day in English and part in Spanish.

The kindergarten through sixth-grade school grew out of a demand for Spanish immersion in the school district, according to the school’s Web site. For the school board to approve the charter school, Fronteras had to prove there is enough interest to attract students. The school has more than 150 students signed up for classes, with some on a waiting list.

“The school itself has done everything; it’s just this lease,” Hamblen said.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiers-man.com or 352-2252.