By DAVID BOYLE
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected.
Although the Anchorage School Board is not set to vote until April 3 on the school superintendent’s recommendation to shut down Family Partnership Charter School, parents were given a three-day notice during a spring break weekend last week that their charter school was being set for closure by the new superintendent from Houston, Texas.
More than 60 parents showed up on short notice to tell the school board board not to kick their kids to the curb by destroying the program that provides customized education and some of the best learning environment in the Anchorage School District.
The board members listened but it wasn’t clear if they heard the parents. It was clear from the superintendent’s closing comments his mind was already made up.
The district notified Family Partnership last Friday at 4 pm that Bryantt planned to revoke the school’s charter and change it to a correspondence school. After the spring break weekend, the board heard parents’ testimony.
Family Partnership started 25 years ago, and is the largest school in the district, with more than 1,700 students.
The school educates its students for nearly $7,000 per student less than the school district’s other campuses.
Some testified that the district held multiple townhalls when it proposed to close six schools yet never held a townhall to allow the public to comment on the shutting down of Family Partnership.
A Family Partnership teacher stated that the principal had coordinated with the superintendent on the closure letter. Another parent said that the principal was notified of the closure four days before the parents were notified. The principal was not present at the meeting of the school board and parents.
Most parents spoke of the ability to customize their child’s education so their kids could actually learn and excel.
One parent said that her soft-spoken son was not doing well in the brick-and-mortar neighborhood schools. After he enrolled in the Family Partnership Charter School, his reading score went from 57% to 91% proficiency; his math scores went from 57% to 88% proficiency.
Another teacher with 23 years in the district who adopted a foster child said her child was failing in the neighborhood schools and other ASD special schools. After he enrolled in Family Partnership as a middle schooler, he excelled. He is now in high school and reads at the 98% proficiency level and is 95% proficient in math.
“This school is a great fit for this unique child,” she said.
Most parents wanted just to educate their children in the way they choose.
Karen Owens noted that Family Partnership has more than 450 students applying for only 100 openings in the lottery for next school year. “We are a shining star,” she said. Meanwhile, the Anchorage School District’s brick-and-mortar track record is failing, by most standards.
These parents see no other school district option for their children. Most parents testified that if Family Partnership loses its charter, they will remove their children from the district and enroll them in any other non-district program, including the IDEA state-wide correspondence program.
Another parent spoke to the superintendent’s focus on “inclusion.” She said, “Dr. Bryant, we are on the same page when it comes to inclusion. Our children have chosen Family Partnership Charter School as their mode of education. Taking away this charter will actually exclude these students from their choice of education.”
At the end of the parent testimony, Bryantt stated he heard what the parents said. He tried to persuade the parents that nothing will change.
Bryantt was concerned with “future breaches” either to the charter, the school bylaws, district policy, and state law. He focused on compliance rather than great education outcomes.
The school board seems to be in lockstep with the superintendent’s decision to revoke the charter, even though the district has many failing schools that do comply with the law and school board policy.
One parent asked the superintendent why many failing schools were not being closed even though they complied with district rules.
Bryantt said, “This change will not impact the teachers or students on the student funding allotments…or the freedom to make choices about their curriculum.”
But when the the school loses its charter and becomes a correspondence school under the thumb of the Anchorage School Board, it must align its curriculum to the district curriculum, per state law.
Bryantt said, “The student allotment will not decrease from what they are today and there are no plans to change that.”
But today’s student allotment of a minimum $4,200 may go down to the usual correspondence school allotment of $2,000. This will deny low-income parents the right to a better education for their kids.
Bryantt was more concerned with the dysfunctional Academic Policy Committee, the Family Partnership’s board, than with the outstanding educational outcomes of the students.
Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt’s letter is at this link.
Parents also voiced concern that the district had its eyes on the $4 million fund balance at the school. Bryantt said there were no plans to take that fund from the school. But many parents warned the district may take the school’s $4 million to fill other budgetary needs.
Bryantt offered no remedial plan of action to assist with getting the school into compliance. Instead, closing the doors to 1,700 achieving students seemed to be the only option he chose.
And many of these 1,700 students will, according to parents, be leaving the Anchorage School District for better education choices.
