State education board pauses OKC charter school application, for now
A proposed charter school twice rejected for sponsorship by Putnam City Public Schools will have to wait two more months before learning if the Oklahoma State Board of Education will serve as its sponsor.
After an hour of listening and debate, the state board tabled the proposal by the Proud To Partner Leadership Academy at its meeting last week, citing legal concerns raised in an Oklahoma State Department of Education staff memo about the charter school’s application. But members of the board, which has generally been supportive of charter applications — especially under state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters — hinted strongly that the application might be approved in May.
Dawn Bowles, the founder of the charter school, asked board members for a yes-or-not vote during the debate, but board member Donald Burdick told Bowles that the delay should be seen “as a desire that we make sure we understand it properly, and it’s a reason for hope. It’s certainly not a no.”
Charter schools, according to the state Education Department website, are public schools that are allowed greater flexibility for greater accountability.
Two other charter schools on the agenda to be considered by the state board, Willard C. Pitts Academy and P3 Montessori Charter School, both had their presentations postponed until May. Both schools had been rejected for sponsorship by the Oklahoma City Public Schools board. Proud to Partner Leadership Academy chose to deliver its presentation on Thursday.
Proud To Partner Leadership Academy says it will serve parts of southwest Oklahoma City that are within the Putnam City school district. By law, charter schools in Oklahoma must be sponsored by a school district, a university or the State Board of Education. Bowles submitted the charter school’s application to the Putnam City school district on Sept. 15, and the district board voted to reject it on Dec. 4.
Bowles made changes to the application and reapplied, but the Putnam City board again rejected the application on Jan. 22. Putnam City district spokesman A.J. Graffeo said the charter school’s application was believed to be the first ever received by the district and that the district doesn’t currently sponsor any charter schools.
As other charter schools have done, Proud To Partner Leadership Academy turned to the State Board of Education for sponsorship. Bowles said she had worked on other education-related projects with Walters, before he became state superintendent, and he acknowledged that relationship during the meeting. Walters, who chairs the state board, praised her work and called Bowles “a rock-star superintendent.”
Dawn Bowles is the founder of Proud to Partner Leadership Academy, a charter school seeking sponsorship from the Oklahoma State Board of Education. MURRAY EVANS/THE OKLAHOMAN
Thursday’s board decision to table the application was the result of a legal dilemma. By law, the state board can only accept for consideration information from the application a charter school had previously submitted when it sought sponsorship by a school district. It cannot accept new information while making its decision, something board attorney Cara Nicklas repeatedly noted during the meeting.
Once the state Education Department received the Proud To Partner Leadership Academy’s application, agency staff reviewed it and had a handful of questions and observations, which were listed in a document given to state board members.
Attorney Bill Hickman — who has worked with Oklahoma charter schools, since state law allowed for them — told state board members he had had an agreement with Bryan Cleveland, the agency’s former general counsel, for charter school officials to meet with agency staff to go over any concerns about the application.
But Cleveland resigned from the agency earlier this month, and three other staff attorneys quickly followed Cleveland out the door, leaving the agency with no in-house legal staff. Hickman said in the absence of a staff attorney, he wasn’t able to meet with any other agency staff to address the concerns and work through them. Hickman said the charter school had received the agency staff-produced document “less than 48 hours” before Thursday’s meeting.
“What’s important about what the department has said is that this application met the requirements in the law,” Hickman said, adding the agency document consisted of “opinions and assumptions … of your staff.”
He said the memo did not assert that the school was failing to meet its legal requirements and that it was a matter of fairness for the board to also listen to the school’s viewpoint expressed in Bowles’ presentation.