The controversy that enveloped the approval of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School has spurred a slate of proposed changes to the rules governing how charters are granted.

The changes would either require the state Board of Education to do things it didn't do when the Gloucester school was approved — such as have its members attend the local public hearing — or codify informal practices the state has been using for years — such as basing a city's population on U.S. Census figures.

Most of the proposals, released by state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester this week, were recommended by state lawmakers in the Joint Committee on Education based on their oversight hearing on the issue at City Hall in June.

While the proposed changes are a tacit acknowledgement of inadequacies in the process as it was, they do not acknowledge any wrongdoing on the part of the education board or state education bureaucracy relative to Gloucester.

Contrary to what many parents, educators and elected officials in Gloucester have called for since the charter school was approved in February, there is no mention of revocation of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter, reconsideration or revote.

Chester will present the proposed changes to the Board of Education at its meeting next Tuesday in what local officials are hoping will be a long-awaited chance for candid debate by the volunteer Board of Education on the Gloucester charter since it voted 6-5 in favor of it with little discussion in February.

"I would like to see some recognition that there were some irregularities in the process," said Gloucester School Committee Chairman Greg Verga yesterday. "I don't expect them to take a revote; it doesn't satisfy our problem. But if we can get some admission, it would be nice."

After the oversight hearing in June, the School Committee sent a letter to the Board of Education formally requesting discussion of the approval process for the Gloucester charter school at a regular meeting.

The proposal to change some of the charter rules comes as tensions in Massachusetts over charter schools are running particularly high. The Gloucester Community Arts Charter School itself is in a period of limbo, still without an announced host building or executive director.

On the orders of Gov. Deval Patrick, Secretary of Education Paul Reville has been in Gloucester this summer trying to see whether compromise changes to the charter, such as making the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School the first of the governor's proposed Readiness Schools, could ease tensions.

Reville has met with local elected and public school officials twice in August and with charter representatives this month.

Amy Ballin, head of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School board, yesterday declined to comment on discussions with Reville.

Verga said the School Committee was open to "thinking outside the box" and was waiting to hear back from Reville for word on the charter school's response.

During months of objections to the charter approval this spring and summer, the failure of a state Education Board member to attend the Nov. 11, 2008, public hearing on the proposed Gloucester Charter at Fuller School was the most frequently cited "irregularity."

Considered a sign of disrespect as well as a procedural error, the lack of attendance became an even bigger issue when the state board voted to retroactively waive the attendance requirement.

Then at the June oversight hearing, Chester said the waiver had not been necessary and board attendance at public hearings in Worcester and Waltham had satisfied the regulations.

The changes proposed by Chester this week would require a board member at "each" public hearing and are followed by what appears to be an assurance that the commissioner will be judicious with the use of retroactive waivers in the future.

"While the board has the legal authority to waive procedural requirements when the waiver does not deny a party its due process or substantive rights, I also take to heart the chair's observation that such a waiver can create perceptions of unfairness," Chester wrote. "The chairs (of the Joint Education Committee) urge us to be judicious in using waivers in the future, and I agree."

Chester did not endorse the Education Committee's recommendation to hold a public hearing in each school district affected by a proposed charter school, citing the practical difficulties of covering the "dozens of districts" that can be served by regional charters.

Another proposed change would make U.S. Census data the basis for determinations of a host community's population, which must be 30,000 or greater to host a non-regional charter.

Charter opponents questioning whether Gloucester's population meets the 30,000 minimum pointed to the fact that the regulations do not now specify a data source.

On comments by the Joint Education Committee that the charter approval requirements are not entirely clear — especially with regard to proof of parental demand and financial impact on a host district, Chester recommends no changes or clarifications.

Parental demand is "impossible to validate" until the school opens, usually two years after approval, Chester writes, and "a quality charter school usually attracts a sufficient number of interested families to operate successfully, regardless of how many people signed petitions."

On economic impact to the host district, the primary source of opposition to the charter school in Gloucester, Chester says it is the Legislature's place to make the funding rules, not the Board of Education.

"We are familiar with the intricacies of charter school financing," Chester writes. "If long-term loss of funding were a sufficient reason to deny a charter school application, then we would not have any charter schools in the commonwealth."

Other proposed charter rule changes, not as closely tied to Gloucester, include giving the education commissioner authority to deal with minor charter changes now requiring board votes and several language clarifications, many of them related to Horace Mann charter schools.

Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.