MALDEN — Endorsing a recommendation by Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 8-2 Tuesday to lift a probation order and allow the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School to retain its charter.
The state board's strong majority vote came at the state Education Department headquarters in Malden in early afternoon, in effect rejecting a new round of objections to the school voiced at a morning public comment session by some members of the Gloucester School Committee, Republican state Sen. Bruce Tarr, Democratic state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante and other critics,
The state board vote also ratified eight conditions called for by Chester, at least some with potentially important implications.
"(It's) sobering, because the hard work starts now," said Joe Knowles of Manchester, the acting chairman of the charter school's Board of Trustees.
By Feb. 1, as one condition, the school must submit a plan to the state Education Department for correcting deficiencies in special education programs.
"We are behind," charter school Executive Director Tony Blackman conceded during Monday's session.
By April 1, another condition sets forth, the school must file a plan based on pre-enrollment data for the 2011-2012 school year demonstrating that it can attract enough students to merit adequate funding.
Currently, Chester said Monday, enrollment is verified by the state as of Oct. 1 at 67, though it is now pegged by the school at 75.
Another condition calls for the school to fill the post of director of education — essentially the school's principal — by Feb. 1.
The school, however, is actively pursuing candidates for that post, and Blackman said earlier this month the GCAS has received nearly 50 applications for the job.
School trustees — who just added two new board members in late November — are also now directed to recruit at least one more new member "with experience and expertise in public sector management."
Funding is central to the harsh and protracted dispute over the Gloucester charter school.
Many opponents argue that the school's very existence will, in the future, drain resources from the city's traditional public schools already strained by costs.
But Chester reiterated Monday that the future of the charter school is inevitably tied to financing.
"The school's revised budget for this school year is tight, but we believe it is manageable," he said in a new memo to the state board. "We do not believe, however, that the school is sustainable in the long run without a significant increase in enrollment."
In the short term, Dec. 31 tuition payments from the state will be based on the verified October enrollment count, with an official enrollment update due in February. The school's funding is based on per-pupil spending, and is thus directly tied to the school's enrollment.
Looking farther into the future, Chester wrote, "in 2011-2012, building lease costs will increase significantly; the school will no longer have its federal charter start-up grant; and salary costs will increase, notably the planned full-year employment of a director of education."
Addressing other concerns that have continued to resonate during the school's first three months of operation, Knowles told the state board that charter school trustees would work affirmatively to remedy past problems found by state officials with procurement policies and public access to meetings.
"As a board," Knowles said in prepared remarks, "we will establish our own ethic of transparency, not simply because it is the legal requirement, but because it makes for more sound policy, more thoughtful deliberations, better understanding among the broad Gloucester community, friend and foe alike."
Ballin leaving charter board
Knowles confirmed after the state board vote an assertion by Chester that the current chairwoman of the charter school trustees, Amy Ballin, will be stepping down.
On Monday in advance of the scheduled state board session, Chester and Associate state Education Commissioner Jeff Wulffson made an unannounced visit to the Gloucester school, following up on a Dec. 10 visit by two state Education Department officials.
Describing himself Tuesday as "positively impressed," Chester said in remarks preceding the vote, "starting up a new school from scratch is not an easy task."
Gloucester School Committee Chairwoman Val Gilman, expressing fears over a loss of funding for traditional public schools, had urged the state board to "look beyond the probationary terms" that had been imposed on the new charter school on Oct. 1 and to exercise "proper oversight."
When the state board tally came out in favor of the charter school, Gilman's school panel colleague, Roger Garberg, all but shrugged.
"It doesn't surprise me," Garberg said, adding that the state board had been "repeatedly unwilling to deal with the problems this charter has raised."
Tuesday's vote, while much anticipated, won't be the last word.
Chester's new memo to the state board anticipates another review of the status of the Gloucester school next May.
The commissioner also noted that still pending, in Essex Superior Court, is a lawsuit filed by 15 public school parents challenging the validity of the original award of a charter to the Gloucester school.
Francis X. Quinn can be reached at 978-283-7000 x 3455 or fquinn@gloucestertimes.com.
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