School vows to appeal, stay open; district readies for influx of displaced students
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
The back-to-school routine for students at the Graystone Academy Charter School has been upended – at least temporarily — by a decision of the Pennsylvania Charter School Appeals Board to revoke the school’s charter this week.
Capping a year-and-a-half-long process, the board on Tuesday denied the January 2012 challenge filed by Graystone to the Coatesville Area School District’s November 2011 decision to revoke Graystone’s charter. Graystone, a kindergarten through 5th grade school in South Coatesville, plans to appeal the decision to Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court.
James Ellison, the Coatesville district solicitor, called the decision “a complete and decisive victory for the district and its administration,” explaining that the appeals board, which voted unanimously, found “every major charter violation that the district alleged.” He said the district, which has paid about $5 million a year in tuition subsidies to Graystone, has been trying to close the charter school because it repeatedly failed to provide the education it promised.
Brian Leinhauser, the solicitor for the charter school, said allegations that Graystone was not meeting students’ needs were untrue. He said he was confident that Commonwealth Court “will correct the decision.” He said the school planned to seek a stay of the appeals board’s decision, which would allow Graystone to open as planned and require the school district to continue making payments to it.
Ellison said Graystone couldn’t appeal until the Charter School Appeals Board releases its written decision, which he estimated would take several weeks. He also said he knew of no precedent for a stay of a school’s charter revocation, which he called a rare occurrence. “There is no way they can open their doors without a charter,” he said of Graystone. Further, he questioned how the school could meet expenses without funding from the district.
Leinhauser agreed that the written decision is needed for the appeal, but he said he believed that both the appeals board and the appellate court would act quickly, recognizing that the beginning of the school year is approaching and that the instability would impact more than 200 students. “My hope is that the Commonwealth Court will allow the school to remain open,” he said. “The administration at Graystone wants to continue to provide a quality education to the students that elect to come to our school.”
Ellison said numerous factors, such as the charter’s failure to meet state academic proficiency standards for six of seven years, suggested that the school was not providing a quality education. Leinhauser said the school was not satisfied with some of its test scores, either, adjustments were made, and “last year’s scores were on the upswing.”
In a prepared statement, Superintendent Richard Como said he was pleased with the decision. “In the coming days, we will be contacting the parents of Graystone students to make them aware that the decision to revoke Graystone’s charter has been upheld and the school will be closing,” he said. “We will also make every effort to ensure that each student is timely registered and placed prior to the commencement of the upcoming school year.”
A statement from the Graystone Academy Charter School Board of Trustees expressed disappointment with the ruling, suggesting that the appeals board “overlooked the clear violation of due process in this case and failure to present substantial and compelling evidence to support this revocation … The real losers in this battle are the families and children who need the special benefits provided by public education of choice offered at Graystone.”
According Graystone’s administration, the school has 272 students were enrolled at the school, which has a faculty and support staff of 54.
Pennsylvania’s Charter School Appeals Board provides an avenue to charter schools to appeal decisions on non-renewal or charter revocation, rulings that follow a review and public hearing of a local school board, according to the state Department of Education web site.
