Horizon termination to be reviewed

PALMER -- The Horizon Charter School Academic Policy Committee has chosen not to appeal a decision made by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board to terminate the charter's contract, but the school's principal, Yulanda Paez, and members of the APC say that they still hope the school board will change its decision to terminate the charter before the 30-day appeal time is up.

"All of the issues they listed [in the termination letter] that we failed to comply with are issues that we dealt with in February," said APC member and Horizon parent Joy Vaughn.

"We were not sure what to repeal," Paez said. "So our attack is not to attack. We're really trying to show them that this is how you approach a problem."

Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle recommended the charter contract be terminated in April, after the school had a series of problems with state testing in February. Paez explained to the school board that the problems arose because of the district change in computer programs mid-year, and it appeared the termination would be voted down at the May 5 school board meeting. The termination was approved, however, when new problems surrounding transcripts were brought to the attention of the board at the May 5 meeting.

"Initially it looked like we would be able to see progress, that did not happen in a way that could give us confidence," said school board president Mike Chmielewski.

Some members of the APC and Horizon employees said told the school board they feel there may be something fishy going on in the district concerning Horizon's survival.

"There was someone or some group of people, because of a loss of control, who wanted to see this school fail," said Horizon teacher Ron Roper. "They have bullied and harassed the APC charter board to the point where they don't feel they can be here [in this district]."

District spokeswoman Kim Floyd said those allegations are false, adding that the district has contracts with two successful charter schools, Midnight Sun Charter School and Academy Charter School.

"That is categorically untrue and unfair," Floyd said.

Paez questioned why the district had not been investigated by the board on these allegations, but Chmielewski said that there had been nothing presented by Horizon thus far that warranted an investigation.

"Whenever anyone makes an allegation of that sort, we need them to put it in writing and be specific," Chmielewski said. "I am not responsive to someone saying things in general terms, and that is what I've heard [from Horizon]."

Parents from Horizon voiced a vote of "no confidence" at Wednesday's board meeting, saying that if the school board voted to keep the contract, the school, which started in the Iditarod Area School District, in the and then moved to this district last year, is not sure they would stay.

"We do not believe the district will support the school, even if the school board votes to keep the charter," Vaughn said.

"There were problems, but not only on the Horizon side," said Anne Marie Acord, a Horizon parent. "You can't just eliminate a school, that's not really dealing with the problem."

The only way the school would stay, said Paez, is if the board set up a future policy to deal with problems -- one that does not hang the threat of termination over her and the APC's heads.

"We are hurting students with this stop, go, stop action," Paez said.

School board member Sarah Welton explained why it was necessary to go through the termination process.

"The vote for the termination was a tool to use to make things clearer, because we were not getting answers," Welton said. Voting to terminate the school's contract set in motion a process that would give the APC 30 days to solve its problems. "Sometimes we have to make unpopular decisions."

Fourteen-year-old Horizon student Jeremy Smith spoke to the board during Wednesday's meeting, questioning the necessity of the termination.

"I'd like to challenge the board to look us [students] in the eye and tell us this is the right thing to do," Smith said.

Though the APC said they will not appeal the termination, the school has provided a three-inch stack of documents that Paez said shows the school has dealt with the earlier problems. The documents were presented to the district at 3 p.m. the day of the school board meeting, leaving little time for the board to review them before the end of the 30-day period.

"I'm disappointed that these documents were presented in this way," Chmielewski said.

Paez said she had already provided evidence that the school had fixed its problems and that most of the document rehashes that evidence, it took that long to put the document together because of some current computer problems.

"We wanted to show a variety of different forms that came from May," explained Paez. "Like Mike Chmielewski said during the meeting, sometimes one item can consume your day."

In order to allow time to review the documentation provided to the district and board, the school board voted to wait on the final Horizon decision and to have a special meeting on May 7, exactly 30 days after the termination letter was sent to Horizon, to discuss the outcome of the school. Chmielewski said that three things could happen at the meeting.

"We could find the school not adequate, and then that's the end of the matter," Chmielewski said. "Or we could continue the contract with very little change, which is highly unlikely, or continue the contract with changes made.

"Obviously we have had considerable difficulty in working on our relationship [with Horizon]. My guess is we will have some changes in the relationship."

The special meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 7, at the school board conference room at Palmer High School.

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