The group that wants to open a charter school on MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., plans to fight the local school district that rejected the proposal.
The Florida Charter Educational Foundation, a volunteer board based in South Florida, voted unanimously Wednesday to appeal the Hillsborough County School Board’s decision to deny the charter application.
“We believe that the application we submitted is solid and the Hillsborough School District’s denial is completely without merit,” foundation chairman Ken Haiko said in a written statement. “We are deeply committed to seeing this through to the end. Our military service men and women deserve our unrelenting determination to provide an educational option that makes sense for their families and we are not willing to be deterred by nonsensical political grandstanding.
The foundation had hoped to open the MacDill Charter Academy, a K-8 charter school serving 875 students, next fall.
“We were asked to locate a school on base to provide military students an opportunity to gain additional support and resources and be surrounded by their peers,” Haiko said in the statement. “Military students must face challenges civilian students do not, such as deployment of parents and frequent moves. The Charter Schools USA model offers flexibility to adapt to the unique needs of the base and provide an academic and social structure that focuses on what’s best for the students and their families.”
The plan called for Charter Schools USA to manage day-to-day operations, with the foundation overseeing governance of the school and a local advisory council made up of military and community leaders guiding the foundation.
Hillsborough school board members voted down the charter application last week after district staff cited concerns about who actually would run the school. An internal review also targeted weaknesses with the charter’s mission, curriculum and finances. Haiko has called the concerns ludicrous.
He conceded the structure of the MacDill school was a little unusual, but it’s the same setup used for more than a decade by Keys Gate Charter School in Homestead, Fla., one of five charter schools the foundation helps run. “It’s like having an extra layer of oversight,” Haiko told redefinED.
District officials also took issue with Charter Schools USA, a for-profit charter management company, because it operates Woodmont Charter School in Tampa, which is rated an F by the state.
Statewide, the company runs 42 charter schools serving 30,850 students. Of the 36 that received state grades in 2013, there were nine A’s, 13 B’s, eight C’s, three D’s and three F’s. Of those failing schools, two in Orange and Manatee counties, respectively, were in their first year of operation.
The Hillsborough district has four F schools.
The foundation has 30 days after receiving notice of the denial to file an appeal with the state Charter Schools Appeals Commission. Then the district has 30 days to respond before it goes before the Florida Board of Education for a final vote. The BOE can overrule the district, and the district can fight that decision in court.
