Every responsible parent wants to make the best decisions they can for their children.
One that is especially important is where and how your child is educated.
Recently, the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School began accepting applications, and while it may be tempting to toss your child's name in the hat, take a moment to make an informed decision by looking at what we know about this school:
We know that the application submitted was deficient enough to warrant a "Do Not Recommend" rating by the professionals at the state Charter School Office charged with vetting proposals.
We know that the approval process by which the charter was granted was deeply flawed, including a violation of the regulations governing the public hearing process. And we know that there is enough concern over the legality of the process that the state inspector general and now the attorney general are investigating.
We know that the community input submitted to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) ran 10-1 against the creation of this school and that most if not all of the "partnerships" originally outlined in the application have subsequently been withdrawn.
We also know that Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester informed the BESE that community opposition was not a factor the board should consider in its decision counter to its own guidelines that community acceptance is a critical component of a school's chance for success.
We know that, prior to the vote, Education Secretary Paul Reville penned a midnight e-mail to Commissioner Chester urging him to push the GCACS as the best of three poor applications calling it a "tough but necessary pill to swallow" in order to move forward a larger agenda.
We know that the millions of dollars in funding that will be diverted to pay for this school will deeply impact the rest of our schools. While there is a "reimbursement" scheme to backfill some of that lost funding, it quickly declines which means that significant cuts will be soon be necessary in the remaining public schools further affecting programs and class sizes.
We know that the GCACS' Board of Trustees continues to shed members. Of the eight original trustees, four have resigned, one had not attended a meeting from May 2009 through Jan. 6, 2010, and we do not know whether two replacement trustees were properly vetted and approved by the DESE as required.
We know that currently there is no physical location for this school. While it has been rumored that the next location being pursued is the recently vacated Cape Ann Medical Center in the Blackburn industrial complex, we're sticking with what we know and that means we do not know where this school will be located or what facilities will be available for 240 children.
We know that the school will be conducting a "lottery" on March 15 to determine admission and that parents will then have two weeks to decide whether their children will in fact attend a school that has no facility, no leader or teachers, no defined curricula and a vague understanding of who is actually charged with overseeing its operations.
My own children are in third and sixth grades. I can't imagine yanking my third-graders out of a school in which they have thrived, grown and formed lasting bonds over the past four years to thrust them into an environment of total uncertainty.
They have their own growing pains to worry about; I can't imagine inflicting the growing pains of an experimental school with no track record.
As for my sixth-grader, I'll admit that she had a bumpy start at O'Maley; however due to our willingness to confront the issues that were impacting her transition to middle school and Principal Tracy and his staff's willingness to engage our concerns, she is now as excited and engaged in school as she has ever been.
You need to make the best decision for your child; neither I, nor anyone else, has the right to interfere with that process. But make it based on facts and what you know to be true. We know that this school was approved through a deficient process and for reasons that ignored its deficient application. To date, school officials have not shown any proof that they are even capable of opening by their September deadline.
Don't allow the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School to further erode the tremendous strides being made by making decisions based on flashy, yet unsubstantiated, promises.
If it does in fact open, perhaps GCACS will consider incorporating a little Shakespeare into its curriculum; I would suggest the "Merchant of Venice" where they will find the admonishment that "all that glitters is not gold."
Jason Grow is a former Gloucester city councilor.
