School board says 'no' to homeschool charter, for now

Homeschoolers in the Valley aren't getting a charter school of their own, at least not this fall.

In a 3-2 vote, with two members absent, the Mat-Su Borough School Board last week turned down Horizon Charter School's request to open this coming school year, but even those members who voted to reject the proposal for now said it was more of an issue of timing and that they would like to consider it for fall 2003.

"My interest in voting no is not a 'no forever more,'" said board member Mike Chmielewski, who along with members Linda Menard and Bob Johnson voted to delay the application but instead considered it for the next school year. Larry DeVilbiss and Dan Contini opposed the delay. Members Carl Gatto and Rob Wells were absent.

All three of the agreeing members said they didn't have a problem with the school as a concept, which would assist more than 100 Mat-Su families who teach their children at home with a wide variety of curriculum and approaches. Instead, they said it was the rush to try to open in a few months that made them uncomfortable.

The board's trepidation seemed to annoy member DeVilbiss, however. He pointed out that it has become clear the district is losing students despite the district's current programs. Some estimates number the loss at around 1,700 Valley students who attend private schools or distance-learning programs of other districts. The Horizon Charter School, he said, could be a way to attract some of those families back.

"And yet I see us sitting here being cowardly in taking any risk at all," DeVilbiss said.

According to board policy, charter schools must turn in applications before Oct. 1 to be considered for the following school year. Horizon Charter School, however, this summer asked for a waiver to this policy so it could open this fall, with a few months of preparation time rather than more than a year.

By hurrying the process, some board members said, they could be putting the district at financial risk. If the local school board were to approve it, the Horizon application would then go to the state school board, which wouldn't be able to consider it until the end of September. In the meantime, any money the school needed and spent would come out of the district's budget. If, in the end, the state board were to say no, there would be no state reimbursement.

Yolanda Paez, who has headed up Horizon's application, said she doesn't see this as a likely scenario.

"We've researched it. We've worked closely with the people at the Department of Education," Paez said.

Despite her assurances that the state board would find no shortcomings in their application, when the board asked for specific numbers, Interim Superintendent Bob Doyle said allowing the charter to open its doors this fall could hypothetically end up costing the district as much as $640,000 -- the school's total budget -- if state funding were to not come through.

But money was not the only source of the board's unease.

Menard described her concern over hiring practices as a potential "fly in the ointment," as Horizon organizers appeared to have already selected a teaching principal and an additional staff member for the school. Menard said such employee matters at another local charter school sparked a grievance. Unless the district's labor unions agree to an exception to contracts, the Horizon jobs would have to be open to the regular hiring routine, which would take additional time.

Paez said the school is entirely willing to follow district policies, but this wasn't enough to sway Menard or her colleagues.

"If we were looking at this application for next year, I think I could go with it," Johnson said. "But I am uncomfortable with going with it this year … there are problems that come up. I don't think it can be done in time for this year."

When Chmielewski asked what would happen if the school board were to turn down the proposal for this school year, Paez said many of the families are already on waiting lists for programs offered by other school districts. Left with no other choice, many parents have said, they will go elsewhere to find the services they want.

After the meeting, however, Paez indicated that the door might not be entirely closed. When asked if the group would pursue opening the school in a year, Paez said that would be up to the organizing committee.

"I will need to go back and talk to [them]," Paez said. "It was the parents who brought this forward."