By Josephine Howell
On Behalf of the First Place Scholar School Board
A diverse community of education leaders and parents have come together to correct 38 non compliant issues that were in place when the Washington Charter Commission approved the charter for First Place Scholars. The School Board and School Leadership was replaced, the compliance plans were submitted to the Charter Commission and except for one of the 38 issues all have been accepted except for one that is still in negotiation. The students are now in a high expectation learning environment including an extended day academic education support program which bring community partners to their learning.
The Washington Charter Commission made a grave error when they rushed to approve First Place Scholars Charter School to open as a charter and denied it the time that the seven other charter schools have been given to develop and open in compliance.
In mid-October, the African American community aligned with a diverse group of parents and teachers and demanded a restructuring of the school’s leadership. In a need to take over the school and put it on course for success, the Board President was voted off and 6 members resigned. On October 28, 2014 the leadership was restructured.
A decision to revoke the charter places these deserving children at risk of having their education disrupted. Charters were developed to bring excellence to children who have not known this in traditional public school settings. In addition to the classroom learning they and their parents are receiving wrap around services.
Dr. Linda Whitehead, who the restructured board hired to bring correction, is an excellent school administrator. The compensatory education plan she developed for the school will be a summer school with funding from Catholic Community Services, a community partner. She has submitted corrections that have been approved by the Commission but this is still for them not good enough. She knows the structure and systems of a well run school. Before retiring, she was the Superintendent of Marysville School District. She has been the perfect selection to work with the Charter Commission to fix what started out for charter schools as a major mistake. During the first two months of failed leadership and oversight no notice of correction was given. Then when the highly capable leadership took over the school and immediately turned it around the letters of demands for correction and the decision to place the school on probation arrived.
The other seven schools are using start up funds and time to develop their school that was not allotted to First Place Scholars. Now that the education corrections are in place the Commission says they are concerned about our finances. When the charter was given the food and transportation reimbursement systems were not in place, there was no approved special education plan, thus reimbursements for the costs for these required programs is not forthcoming.
We need the public to ask Governor Inslee to make the Charter Commission step up to their responsibility to give FPS, which is a community school, the equal time they have given other schools they approved. It is the Charter Commission’s responsibility to insist that all charter schools are ready to educate children on the day they open. Now that the compliance plans are done and submitted we need time to recoup the financial losses that were in place when new leadership stepped in and turned around the school.
Please Call Gov Jay Inslee’s Chief of Staff Joby Shimomura at 360-902-4112 or email joby.shimomura@gov.wa.gov
