Charter school expansions hit board impasse
March 9, 2008 - 9:00 pm
Three groups looking to open or expand charter schools in Nevada went down swinging before the state Board of Education on Friday and Saturday.
Strike one: Insight School of Nevada's scheduled application review by the board subcommittee on charter schools was abruptly canceled Friday, casting doubt on whether the online program for at-risk students will be able to open as planned for 2008-09.
Strike two: Nevada Virtual Academy's request to expand services to include students in kindergarten through grade three was blocked Saturday by board members who split 5-5 on the proposal.
Strike three: Nevada Connections Academy, also seeking to bring distance education to students in kindergarten through grade three, failed to gain approval because board members deadlocked again.
"I think they owe the public an explanation on why they're saying no to things," said a frustrated Gary Waters, himself a former Board of Education member who's now part of the Insight School start-up group.
Waters wasn't the only one at the board meeting with that opinion. State Board Member Barbara Myers -- who along with Jan Biggerstaff, Greg Nance, Cliff Ferry and Sharon Frederick supported the charter expansions -- chastised opposing board members for their intractability, saying their votes failed to consider the positive input and lack of opposition voiced during public hearings.
"This is just so terribly frustrating to me because if I had heard anyone saying something negative other than the board members themselves, I could go in a different direction," Myers said Saturday. "On the other hand, the people who are opposed to this don't seem to move over, no matter how much support there is."
The state board members who voted against the two charter expansions were Anthony Ruggiero, Cindy Reid, Merv Iverson, John Gwaltney and Marcia Washington.
"Everyone has a difference of opinion," said Washington, who is board president.
Iverson responded by calling Myers condescending.
"I do not like to be preached to," Iverson said.
Washington said one of her concerns is the impact that distance learning will have on the development of social skills in primary grades. Reid pointed out that the expansions were not being recommended by state Department of Education staff, who are most familiar with the charter schools. Other opposing board members wanted to see performance data on young children enrolled in distance learning.
The board's serial deadlocks on expansion issues has both charter schools considering legal action as a possible remedy.
Laura Granier, attorney for the Nevada Connections Academy, acknowledged board members' concerns, but said their decision has to be guided by legislative precedent. Distance education is lawful for all grade levels, Granier said. No restrictions on that exist in the Nevada Revised Statutes.
Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, a Nevada state senator and attorney for Nevada Virtual Academy, said he'll also be discussing the possibility of a legal challenge with his clients.
Complicating the deadlocks over expansion for both schools was a lack of transcribed board minutes from a meeting that took place last year. State board members first approved the charters of the distance learning schools that serve students throughout the state last spring. Representatives of the schools and members of the Board of Education could not agree on exactly what was said at that time about expansion to the primary grades. Transcribing the meeting tape has been outsourced, so no minutes were immediately available to resolve the issue.
The charter school issue is an increasingly controversial one for the state board, which placed a moratorium on approving new charter schools last year. The state board acted after both the Washoe County and Clark County school districts declined to authorize new charters, placing an additional burden on the state.
In February, state board members and staff from the Department of Education told legislators that they have neither the staff nor the financial resources to deal with the growing number of charter schools across Nevada. This year, there are 22 charter schools operating in Nevada, serving about 6,000 students.
One solution legislators are looking at to resolve the bureaucratic bottleneck charter schools face is creating a separate entity to deal with authorization and oversight. Waters said that might be necessary.
"I was on the board for 12 years," Waters said. "If I'm having a problem, there's no way the average person involved with a charter school isn't going to have a problem. They're going to be massively challenged because every time you get close to a goal, they change the position of the post."
Contact reporter Lisa Kim Bach at lbach @reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0287.