By Patrick Anderson
The state's House of Representatives has denied a bid by Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, supported by Gov. Deval Patrick, to void a charter awarded to the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School.
But the state's Inspector General also vowed yesterday to continue looking into an alleged "coverup" by the Department of Education in the Gloucester charter approval process.
Approaching midnight Wednesday, House leadership — including Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop — decided that amending a sweeping education bill to strike down an individual charter school set an uncomfortable precedent, Ferrante said yesterday.
Based on those concerns, the amendment that would have killed the charter and seven others filed by Ferrante in response to alleged misdeeds by the state officials who approved the Gloucester charter, was rejected before the education bill was passed early yesterday.
Ferrante said that, in addition to concerns about precedents, House leaders felt the intent of the bill — reportedly to make Massachusetts eligible for $250 million in federal school funds, and to help close educational achievement gaps — did not fit with the Gloucester amendments.
The amendments were filed in the wake of state Inspector General Gregory Sullivan's accusations that state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester misled lawmakers about how and why he endorsed the Gloucester charter and his staff destroyed key evaluation records.
"I knew when I filed it may not happen and if it hadn't been for the inspector general coming out with his findings, I probably wouldn't have done it," Ferrante said. "I just wanted to try to take every opportunity."
Since Sullivan released his findings last weekend, a war of words has broken out, with Chester Wednesday night calling the inspector general's findings "erroneous" and Sullivan yesterday vowing to continue his probe into the education department and what he called a "coverup" in the Gloucester case.
"My office is continuing to investigate this matter with a determination to get to the bottom of what happened," Sullivan said. "The fact that it has been destroyed does not mean that it will not find out the facts of why they were destroyed."
With news early yesterday morning that the amendments had been defeated, the spirits of members of the Gloucester Community Arts board of trustees appeared lifted yesterday.
"We are very excited about moving forward with our school and are very confident," said board chairwoman Amy Ballin. "And we are very close to signing a lease and confirming our head of school."
Based on discussions during the charter board's meetings and information from those with knowledge of the location search, the charter school is expected to be built in the former Brown's mall building on Main and Pleasant streets.
The board was prepared to sign a lease with the owners of Brown's mall Wednesday, but decided to delay it until some of the lingering political uncertainty surrounding the school is eliminated.
The charter board is also reportedly close to an agreement with Ljuba Marsh of the Global Learning Charter Public School in New Bedford, bringing her here as the local school's first executive director.
Ballin would not confirm the identity of the new director or building location until both deals are finalized.
As lawmakers met in Boston Wednesday, the GCACS Board of Trustees met with their lawyer to discuss their legal options.
With action from the state Legislature no longer imminent, it is not clear what steps the many residents and officials who have fought the school, and what they have described as a sham approval process by the state, will do next.
Most observers, noting that the approval of charter schools is an executive function, have looked to the governor to act — especially since his top education aide, Secretary of Education Paul Reville, came around this week to the Patrick Administration's pro-revocation position.
State Sen. Bruce Tarr has called on Reville and Patrick to follow through on their statements this week that the "preceding controversies make the continued existence of the GCACS charter not in the best interests of the school or the community."
Ferrante said she spoke with the governor's office yesterday, but there were no immediate actions being taken on the charter issue.
Reville sits on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which made the decisive 6-5 vote to approve the Gloucester charter last February and last fall conducted a lengthy review of possible revocation.
With Reville now in support of killing the Gloucester charter and the commissioner of education under intense political pressure, the dynamics on the board may have changed.
So far, however, there has been no announcement that the state board will take the issue up again.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3455, or via e-mail at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
