What’s the rush?

That’s my question regarding Durango’s new charter-school proposal. The upcoming Tuesday’s school board scheduled vote (March 31) on The Juniper School application should be postponed in order to allow the school the time to improve its plans and address the many issues raised by the review committee without requiring any special contingencies from District 9-R.

As a founder of Durango’s oldest charter school, I am a proponent of developing quality charter schools that add to the portfolio of choices available in our community, but I am equally concerned about the consequences if a school is approved to open before demonstrating it is ready.

The successful implementation of a charter school plan begins with a clearly articulated application. Solid details are needed to assure authorizers of the school’s long-term viability. Those details are not fleshed out in The Juniper School application, and yet the organizers are pushing the school board to approve.

Best practices exist for the thorough vetting of charter-school applications. These best practices are designed to position the applicant school for success and to protect the applicant, the authorizer and the taxpayers.

The main statutory “check and balance” for charter-school applications is a review committee comprised of parents, educators and experts who evaluate the merit of charter-school applications based on written criteria. The reviewers closely examine the feasibility of every aspect of the application.

In the current situation, Durango 9-R rightly convened a review team through the District Advisory Accountability Committee. Since October, the DAAC review team has assessed three submitted versions of The Juniper School proposal and found that the application is still “a long way away from being ready” for approval. The DAAC raised concerns about multiple issues within the application, from its financial viability to its operational management to its academic program. The review team concluded that the school board should not approve the application at this time.

I am concerned that district personnel appear to be disregarding the recommendation of the DAAC application review team, putting the school board in the position of making an ill-advised decision to approve this application with extensive “contingencies.”

In order to be primed for success, a charter-school application needs the right plan, the right funding and the right implementation. The application must articulate (as clearly as can be foreseen) the school’s performance measures, its budgets, its educational plans, its daily operations and its long-term vision. The application contents – the exact verbiage – are what the authorizer uses to measure the school’s performance. Without this accountability, a charter application can become a formula for disaster that has ramifications for families in our community.

So, it is crucial that the school board get this decision right.

With the DAAC review committee expressing reservations on each of these points, why is the application being brought forth to the school board for a vote?

“To make fundraising easier,” say the organizers.

So now, the district is poised to approve a five-year, legally binding contract – that its own committee recommended against approving – based on a five-month window of fundraising?

Yes, that appears to be the case.

It does seem like the cart is being put before the horse.

The Juniper School doesn’t need to be chartered to raise funds. Durango’s two current charter schools, Animas High School and Mountain Middle School, obtained multiple grants prior to their applications’ approvals. Both schools acquired start-up funds exceeding $750,000, and these awards were secured prior to and contingent upon approval of their charter applications.

In addition, when these schools were approved, the relatively few contract stipulations were specific and easy to track: enrollment gates, facilities and staffing. Such straightforward contingencies are impossible for The Juniper School because the deficiencies identified by the DAAC are varied and vast.

The upcoming School Board vote seems premature. In alignment with best practices, The Juniper School should withdraw its application from consideration this spring and present an improved application during the earliest submission period this August. If they are unwilling to do so, then the school board should vote to deny the application at this time. The Juniper School application is just not ready yet.

Denying the application now mitigates the risk to the district. It puts the burden of responsibility back where it belongs: on the shoulders of the charter school organizers to pull together a proposal that the school board can vote for with confidence in its success – one that donors will willingly commit to fund, one that the community can stand behind with pride.

Gisele Pansze is an educator and a charter-school founder. She lives in Durango and can be reached at gpansze@bresnan.net.