Montgomery County’s only charter school will fight closure effort

 

Superintendent Thomas Taylor wants to close the school, so its leaders are appealing to the state

The leaders of Montgomery County’s only charter school don’t seem ready to go down without a fight.

Superintendent Thomas Taylor is pushing for Mecca Business Learning Institute’s closure, pointing to failures to serve students with special needs, enrollment declines and violations of federal privacy law.

He asked the Montgomery County school board to vote next month to revoke the campus’ charter.

Faced with that existential threat, charter school officials want to take their case to the Maryland State Board of Education. They’ve filed a petition asking for an impartial review of the situation...

https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/montgomery-county-charter-school-fight-closure-6FPDQG3TVREOBPHHU2YZGG7KNQ/#comments-header

@mcps Countywide Charter School to Open Fall 2025 with 250 Students in Grades 6 & 7 after @mocoboe Denials Reversed Twice by Md State Board of Education

The Montgomery County Board of Education discussed the Charter School that will be opening next year at their June 11, 2024, Board of Education meeting.

In that meeting, the opening date for the MECCA Business Learning Institute Public Charter School was announced.  

https://mcpsmd.new.swagit.com/videos/307530?ts=13061

This Charter School is opening in Montgomery County after two successful appeals by this applicant to the Maryland State Board of Education.  

...Having found no reasonable, articulated basis for the denial of the charter, we reverse the local board’s decision.

MBEFCollege.Op.No.23-03.pdf (marylandpublicschools.org)

...For all these reasons, we reverse the local board’s decision denying the Appellant’s application to operate a charter school. Pursuant to Md. Code Ann., Educ § 9-104(d), we remand the matter to the local board and direct the board to grant contingent approval of the Appellant’s charter application and execute a contingent charter agreement consistent with our decision.

 MBEFCollegeAndCareerAcademiesInc.Op.No.23-25.pdf (marylandpublicschools.org)

State Board of Education Directs @MCPS Board of Ed to Grant Contingent Approval to Charter School @mocoboe

October 24, 2023

Opinion from Maryland State Board of Education in the matter of:

MBEF COLLEGE AND CAREER ACADEMIES, INC. versus Montgomery County Board of Education 

...CONCLUSION For all these reasons, we reverse the local board’s decision denying the Appellant’s application to operate a charter school. Pursuant to Md. Code Ann., Educ § 9-104(d), we remand the matter to the local board and direct the board to grant contingent approval of the Appellant’s charter application and execute a contingent charter agreement consistent with our decision. We further direct the local board to extend the period for the Appellant to meet the contingencies until at least March 1, 2024. The charter agreement shall be executed within 30 days of the date of this decision. We further direct the parties to work together so that the Appellant can correct the deficiencies identified by the local board.3

BOARD OF EDUCATION REJECTS CHARTER SCHOOL PROPOSALS

Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education unanimously voted against allowing either of two  proposed charter schools to open next year. At this time, the county continues without any charter schools.

Because the the Washington-McLaughlin Charter School for Boys Inc. and The Washington-McLaughlin Charter School for Girls Inc., did not demonstrate a clear understanding of the federal government rules on  separate sex schools, the application was turned down during the BOE’s July 27 business meeting.

The Board also unanimously rejected a proposal from The Mentoring Business Learning Institute (MBLI). The school’s plan focused on business education and financial literacy for students in middle through high school regardless of their future career and life choices.

Board members expressed concern with MBLI’s finances, noting it was unclear how it would obtain funding beyond what the state and local governments provide per pupil.Late the evening before the Tuesday meeting, MCPS did receive additional documentation noting the school had secured a bank. But the specific arrangements on what money would cover costs was not detailed, according to Acting Superintendent Monifa McKnight...

https://www.mymcmedia.org/boe-rejects-charter-school-proposals/

Board of Education Pays $153,379 Salary of Private School Director

Once again, the salary information released from Montgomery County Public Schools shows that the Board of Education continues to pay the salary of a private school director/principal.  The MCPS Operating Budget is apparently so flush with cash that there is money in the budget to fund the full time position of a private school director/principal.

The director/principal of the George B. Thomas Saturday School is paid out of the MCPS Operating Budget to run a private school that operates outside the oversight of the public school system.  No data, audits or accountability exists over this private school program, yet public school funding is being diverted to pay for the full time principal of this school.

How does funding the position of a private school director/principal align with the purpose of the Maryland Maintenance of Effort law that applies to the funding of public schools?

Maryland’s “maintenance of effort,” enacted by the General Assembly, requires that counties maintain the same amount of funding for education per pupil each year. The maintenance of effort name derives from the concept that a county is maintaining a level effort towards education funding from year-to-year. 

What other private schools have their staff funded out of the MCPS Operating Budget?   

https://www.saturdayschool.org/about-us/

Baltimore County charter school expects to open in fall — featuring 10 acres of woods, fields and a stream

A Baltimore County charter school designed to get children outside into an environment of streams, woods and fields is expected to open next fall in Woodlawn, despite initial difficulties in gaining county school board approval.

The two founders — both parents with children who would attend the school — visualize students exploring a campus with an orchard, gardens and a chicken coop, as well as natural spaces. The school is part of a nature-based movement in education that places emphasis on the notion that children shouldn’t spend their days on a computer or stuck inside.

The school would be Baltimore County’s only current charter school, and only the second to gain approval in the years since Maryland passed a law in 2003 allowing charter schools. Unlike the city, where there are 34 charter schools that have proliferated over the past two decades, Baltimore County’s school board and administration have received few such applications to consider...

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-co-new-charter-opens-20181218-story.html?fbclid=IwAR1H2kLUVbxVTbOM3HEWOEmx85rUA5UMZPcxn04pBD0uFK9X9OrpqnMuKl8

Webcast Wed. May 23rd: America’s Charter School Deserts: Up Close in the Washington Metro Area featuring Joseph Hawkins (Montgomery County)

2016–17 was one of the slowest growth years for charter schools in recent memory. Nobody knows for sure why this happened, but one hypothesis is saturation: With charters enjoying market shares of over 20 percent in some three dozen cities, and almost 50 percent in Washington, D.C., perhaps school supply is starting to meet parental demand, making new charters less necessary and harder to launch. If so, perhaps it’s time to look for new frontiers.

One option is to start more charter schools in affluent communities, which we surely support. But we couldn’t help but wonder: Are we overlooking neighborhoods in America that are already home to plenty of poor kids, and that contain the population density necessary to make school choice work? Especially communities in the inner-ring suburbs of flourishing cities, which are increasingly becoming magnets for poor and working-class families priced out of gentrifying areas?

That’s the question addressed by Fordham’s new study by Miami of Ohio assistant professor Andrew Saultz, Charter School Deserts: High-Poverty Neighborhoods with Limited Educational Options. Saultz and his team found that thirty-nine of forty-two charter states have at least one desert each—and the average number of deserts per state is a worrying 10.8.

Consider how this plays out in the Washington, D.C., metro area. The District of Columbia is home to a thriving, high-quality charter sector that has benefited from supportive public policies and ample private philanthropy. That’s all well and good—but the city’s affluence has put residency out of reach for many poor and working-class families. The District is home to roughly 37,000 poor children and 120 charter schools. Yet neighboring Montgomery County, Maryland, has many more low-income students—some 55,202 of them—and exactly zero charter schools. And in chronically low-performing Prince George’s County, Maryland, there are 81,055 low-income students, but just eleven charter schools.

Join us on May 23 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. for a summary of Fordham’s new study, a discussion about the charter school deserts located in the shadow of the Washington Monument, and an examination what might be done by philanthropists, policymakers, and others to irrigate them.

You can also follow the conversation on Twitter with @educationgadfly and #CharterDeserts.

Moderator:

Michael Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Discussants:

Robin Chait, Center City Public Charter Schools

Joseph Hawkins, Retired (formerly Westat)

Kimberlee Sia, KIPP Colorado

This event will be webcast. Please visit the Thomas B. Fordham's event page, at 10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 23rd, to watch the proceedings live.

Now on Oracle’s Campus, a $43 Million Public High School

Oracle builds a public charter school for $43million. Tell us again, how much does a public school in Montgomery County cost to build?

Story from The New York Times, reporter Natasha Singer. Full story here.

"Now Oracle, the business software services giant, is trying the opposite tack: bringing a public charter school to the company.

At its lush campus with a man-made lake here, Oracle is putting the finishing touches on a $43 million building that will house Design Tech High School, an existing charter school with 550 students. The sleek new school building has a two-story workshop space, called the Design Realization Garage, where students can create product prototypes. It has nooks in the hallways to foster student collaboration.

And when the school moves here in early January, Oracle employees will be available to mentor students in skills like business plan development and user-experience design.

“It’s really cool that Oracle is doing this,” said Matthew Silverman, 16, a junior at the school. “We can have more opportunities to learn from experience.”

Putting a charter school — that is, a publicly funded school that has its own school board and operates independently — on the campus of a tech giant is a new twist on the evolving relationship between big tech companies and schools."

FYI from 2014: MoCo Board of Ed President's DC Charter School shut down

Leaders of Hospitality High, a D.C. charter school backed by some of the Washington area’s largest hotel companies, have decided to relinquish their charter to join the city’s traditional school system.

The unusual move — it is the first time a D.C. charter school has converted into a traditional school — allows Hospitality to avoid potential closure by the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which is responsible for approving new charters and closing those that underperform.

“Our choice to merge with D.C. Public Schools was in the best interest of our students and the commitment that we’ve made to the District of Columbia to expose them to the wonderful industry that is hospitality, which is the largest industry in the city,” said Hospitality board member Solomon Keene, president of the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C...

...Officials with the public school system said they have no concern about a conflict of interest since she is no longer directly involved in Hospitality. Hospitality’s board is now chaired by Durso’s cousin, Michael A. Durso, a longtime educator and president of the Montgomery County Board of Education.

Researcher’s fight to close achievement gap irked school board for years

Joe Hawkins learned early how much trouble he could get into as an educational researcher, particularly when he reported problems in his high-performing but self-congratulatory school district in Montgomery County, Md.

In 1981, Hawkins, as an evaluation specialist, was the first researcher to identify publicly the district’s black-white achievement gap. When he and a colleague published their results in the College Board Review, a school board member asked why school employees were putting out negative information.

It has been like that his whole career, ending this year at age 68 with his retirement from the position of senior study director for the survey research firm Westat. Few people know his name, but Hawkins has made important discoveries on many issues and been a valuable resource for education writers like me.

He grew up in the Washington area, got a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at Boston University and trained as a reading specialist at Howard University. He has an activist’s temperament. Few researchers have stuck their necks out as far as Hawkins has.

He became particularly notorious in 2001, shortly after he moved to Westat, when the Montgomery County Board of Education — for reasons that still make no sense to me — turned down a proposal by Hawkins and several brilliant Montgomery educators for the Jaime Escalante Public Charter School...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/researchers-fight-to-close-achievement-gap-irked-school-board-for-years/2017/08/24/b66e6b74-8799-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html?utm_term=.159f759e319e

Mont. Co. Planning Director Sends Her Children to DC Charter Schools

Check out where the Montgomery County Planning Board's Planning Director sends her children to school. It's not MCPS!

This video clip is from the January 12, 2016, Board of Education meeting discussion conerning putting MCPS children in commercial office space instead of public school buildings.  

Publci School Parents Show Increased Satisfaction

...In the District, families can apply to enroll in traditional public schools and more than 100 charter schools through a citywide enrollment lottery.
After decades of declines, enrollment has increased in D.C. public schools for the past three years, a turnaround that school officials are hoping to continue. Many schools still struggle with low enrollment amid steep competition. Charter schools enroll 44 percent of the city’s students, and many employ sophisticated marketing strategies...

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/what-did-the-declining-dc-school-system-do-hire-political-consultants-of-course/2015/07/21/388e48aa-2fd0-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html

Breaking: Inspector General Investigation into MCPS Charter School Operator

In October, 2014, an individual contacted the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to lodge numerous allegations regarding the school and residency programs at Crossway Community, Inc. (Crossway). This individual expressed concern about alleged abuse of children in the day care program and that program participants who complained were retaliated against and/or kicked out of the school or residency programs.
Several other program participants subsequently expressed similar concerns to our office.

...

Inquiry and Outcome:
Mr. Nelson advised us that DHCA had been made aware of assertions that Crossway residents were threatened with the loss of their project-based Housing Choice Voucher Program subsidy if they did not complete the Crossway Family Learning Academy (FLA) program and enroll eligible children in the Crossway Community Montessori School childcare facility. HOC had previously advised the OIG that if true, this could be a violation of HUD rules.

...

Full memorandum at this link: 

 http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OIG/Resources/Files/PDF/IGActivity/FY2015/mcdhca_mchoc_crossway_community_pim15002_12_dec_2014.pdf

Waiting for (Mr. or Ms.) Right Superintendent

If I ran the Montgomery County school system ... I would not jump to have another "interim superintendent" appointed for the next school year.

Even if some of the top prospects are gone.

I would conduct an review of what happened this year - a search failure - and what happened four years earlier with Dr. Starr's selection process.  In hindsight, this is another search failure, since Dr. S left in a huff and didn't finish out his contract.

Even the search that eventually produced Dr. Weast was an initial failure.  The BOE identified Ellie Massie, who had numerous problems and withdrew after her appointment.

So - over the last 16 years, the taxpayers in Montgomery County Maryland have endured three failed searches for school superintendents.

What I would consider -

1.  Another search firm.  Clearly, the current search firm doesn't work for us.  Maybe for other counties or school systems, but not the folks in Montgomery County.

2.  A transparent process.  Secrecy is just not working.  Same for confidentiality agreements.  Meaningful community input and crowdsourcing are the way to go.  Put the finalists names out there - as many other communities do, and gauge the reaction of the crowd.  If the candidates have something to hide, chances are the crowd will find out, and sooner is better than later.  Would Ellie Massie's financial woes have been discovered earlier?   What about Josh's short fuse?  And who knows what really made Drew Houlihan back down.

We're a tough group in Montgomery County.  We need a superintendent who can work with us - our good points and our not so good points.  The job is a great job - $300,000 and a car - who ever thought an educator could get paid a real living wage.

But please- no finger pointing at anyone outside of the current selection process as scaring away other candidates.  Candidates should have researched us before they accepted the plane ticket to interview with the BOE.  If anything, we are really a pretty tame county, considering what some of the other jurisdictions can do -- think about the test boycott in Scarsdale a few years back, and the outing of the Pearson privacy package.  Oh, yes, and the Smartboard disaster - we're still  buying them in MoCo when other counties have clearly moved on.

Kudos to Krista Brick - from mymedia.com  who provided the following:

krista brick @lmjpbrick · 13m13 minutes ago

.@georgeleventhal: MCPS board is considering using an interim superintendent for another year.

1 retweet0 favorites

krista brick @lmjpbrick · 14m14 minutes ago

.@georgeleventhal: some of the MCPS other top prospects may have already signed contracts.

2 retweets0 favorites

Are Charter Schools a More Cost-Effective Solution to Closing the Achievement Gap?

Montgomery County Taxpayers League Meeting
www.mctaxpayersleague.org

Wednesday, May 13, 2015 - 7:00 - 9:00 pm
5th Floor Conference Room, Council Office Building
100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850

                                                                       

Topic:   " Are Charter Schools a More Cost-Effective Solution to Closing the Achievement Gap?"

Speaker: 

Jeanne Allen, Founder, Center for Education Reform

Here are the questions sent to the speaker in advance of our meeting:

1.  What is the mission and what are the overall goals of public charter schools?  How do they differ from the mission and goals of regular public schools.

2.  Are the salaries and benefits (health and retirement) of public charter school teachers the same as those of their counterparts in public schools?  If not, how challenging is it to hire highly qualified teachers in public charter schools? 

3.  Should public charter schools be authorized by local school Boards?  Does this represent a conflict of interest for local school boards?  Should authorization be granted at the state level?

4. What is the oversight and accountability for charter schools?  Is a CPA audit required?

5. Currently, there are 47 public charter schools in Maryland, with a great number concentrated in districts with majorities of high risk kids: Baltimore City (31) and PG county (10).  How do public charter schools deal with the Achievement Gap?  Do you have any statistics on how public charter schools have fared in closing the achievement gap in these schools vs other public schools in the same neighborhoods. 

6. Can you list some of the reasons as to why there is such opposition to opening public charter schools in Montgomery County?  

Exclusive: SEARCHABLE MCPS Budget Information!

At the recent Board of Education budget hearings, BOE members asked MCPS staff questions. MCPS staff is never able to answer the questions on live television, so the answers are typed up and submitted to the BOE at a later date.

(It's sad that the BOE has to ask questions about the budget, but since they don't write the budget they have no clue what's in it!) 

On the evening of January 23, 2014, the BOE held their first FY 2015 Operating Budget worksession.  At the worksession the answers to the BOE budget questions were distributed in binders.  MCPS posted the 44 pages of answers online in a non-searchable PDF file.

Why can't MCPS make a searchable PDF document?
No worries. We can!  So, here you go with TWO searchable versions of important MCPS budget information.

2/4/2014 UPDATE:  These budget answers have now been Revised.  See the searchable Revised document at this link. 

You can either read and search this document on

Dropbox: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31645241/FY2015%2001-23-14.pdf

or on  SCRIBD:

  FY2015 01-23-14 by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Charter Schools in Maryland

Total Number of Charter Schools in Maryland

Charter schools are only in 7 counties.   
Anne Arundel County Public Schools ... 2
Baltimore City Public Schools ... 38
Baltimore County Public Schools ... 1
Frederick County Public Schools ... 2
Montgomery County Public Schools ... 1  [Charter school is closing.]
Prince George's County Public Schools ... 7
St. Mary's County Public Schools ... 1

Public Comment to State Board of Ed: Illegal Fees, Charter School, Restrictions on Teachers, Cell Towers on Playgrounds

The following public comment was given today to the 

Maryland State Board of Education.

Maryland State Board of Education

August 27, 2013

Public School Students Should Be First Priority

 of State Board of Education

1. Montgomery County Public School students are still paying fees to attend public school classes. This is the third time I have come before you on these illegal fees. In 2010, the State Board of Education did a survey of Maryland public schools to determine if other Counties were charging students to attend public school classes. What did you do with your survey results? You know this illegal practice continues, yet you remain silent.

2. Seven students were admitted to Montgomery County Public Schools one and only public charter school without being part of the public lottery process. You were given this information as part of your evaluation of the Charter. Have you contacted the seven families from the wait list that were denied admission to this school to alert them of their right to appeal the denial of admission? Have you done anything to protect the right of these seven public school students to a fair and open public lottery process?

3. How many teachers in public schools in Maryland are in classrooms with restrictions on their ability to touch or interact with their students? Please do a county by county survey and make the results public. Parents need to know if they are required to send their child to a public school if the classroom teacher is restricted from tying a shoelace, touching a child to show how to hold a pencil, or picking a child up who has fallen down. Parents have the right to know if their child's teacher is restricted from taking these basic actions. Do we need regulations? Legislation?

What needs to be done to make sure that no teachers are in classrooms with children with these unconscionable restrictions on their movements. If a teacher has such restrictions, then promote them to administration and get them out of the public school classrooms! NOW!

Clearly, the State Board knew there was a serious problem when you signed off on your September 2012 Opinion 12-34, Picca v. Montgomery County Board of Education, but did you take any action? Here's what you said in that 2012 Opinion:

September 25, 2012, Opinion from the Maryland State Board of Education in the Picca v. Montgomery County Board of Education matter :

"...Recent child sex abuse cases have shone a bright light in that dark corner.  We think that this case can shine a light on the abusive conduct, albeit infrequent, of school staff toward children.  We ask local boards to review and put in place a policy addressing teacher and staff conduct with students, and make it a part of the message in staff training and meetings.  We ask local boards to inquire about the safeguards that are in place to assure that the type of persistent conduct that occurred in this case does not occur in their schools..."

Did MCPS take any action after that Opinion was released?

It appears that neither the State Board of Education, nor Montgomery County Public Schools took any action after the September 2012 Opinion because it took HOMELAND SECURITY to remove this teacher from a MCPS classroom in February of 2013.

According to court documents, school leaders placed restrictions on Joynes in November 2011, after two complaints. Joynes was told not to touch children, be alone with them, sit in the cafeteria during lunch or stay on the playground during recess. His classroom door was to remain open, and he was to use staff restrooms, not those for students, documents say.

The Washington Post, August 21, 2013 – Article attached.

4. We need a Statewide ban on cell towers at elementary schools. Parents and guardians need to focus on their children's education and should not have to spend these important educational years battling private interests who want to turn playgrounds into Hazardous Materials compounds. It's time to protect playgrounds for public school students!

Thank you for the opportunity to give public comment.

Janis Zink Sartucci

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

The Chosen Charter

From great reporter Rachel Baye, late of The Examiner, who now is writing for the Washington City Paper. Rachel, welcome back! We missed you!

The Chosen Charter At Sela Public Charter School, the newest idea in D.C. education—Hebrew—is three millennia old.
By Rachel Baye • August 2, 2013
A not-quite-single-file line snakes through a hallway adorned with artwork and class assignments. Flags and streamers dangle from the ceiling. A teacher attempts to calm a sobbing 9-year-old boy. Soon groups of kids will file into classrooms, take their seats, and, when prompted, greet their instructors: “Boker tov!” 

Inside the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School, the trappings are colorful and slightly worn, the bustle is familiar, and the instruction, depending on the class and the hour, sounds positively ancient.
For now, this public school in Brooklyn, N.Y.—one that teaches Hebrew, explores Israeli culture, and is even adorned with Israeli flags—is a relative rarity in the wooly, experimental world of American charter-school education. But it provides a scholastic environment that’s about to become familiar to some 110 public school students in the District, once a similar building, Sela Public Charter School, opens on August 19 in the city’s Lamond Riggs neighborhood, near Takoma.

In its first year, Sela plans to enroll students from across the District in prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade. In the 31,000-square-foot red brick elementary school, a former warehouse and high school, every classroom has an accent wall that matches the red, orange, or teal of the school’s slick logo. By its fifth year, Sela’s leaders intend to expand to fifth grade, and as many as 600 students will walk through the building’s red classroom doors each day.

At Sela, whose name is Hebrew for rock or foundation, school days will alternate between Hebrew and English. In math, for example, students will learn how to add and subtract in English one day, and the next day they’ll pick up where they left off in Hebrew.
For the entire story go here.

Charter School Needs to Raise $500,000 Annually to Stay Afloat

What kind of a public school is MCPS' one and only Charter School that it needs to raise $500,000 every year to stay open?  Is this how MCPS runs all of its public schools?  Why was a Charter School allowed to open if they didn't have sufficient funds to be sustainable?

Families at the Community Montessori Charter School have been told that $500,000 needs to be raised.  
What does this mean to those families?  What burden does it put on them now that they have enrolled their child in what they thought was a MCPS public school?

Are the Board of Education and the County Council monitoring this fundraising?  

See #5 on this document from the Community Montessori Charter School:

  Community Montessori Charter School by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland