Schools

Fight over charters looms

The School Board wants to oversee local charter schools, but the state says that it will.

By TOM MARSHALL, Times Staff Writer
Published November 19, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - For years, the School Board was the only game in town when it came to running public schools in Hernando County.

Officials pointed with some confidence to the state Constitution, which gave the board power under Article IX to "operate, control and supervise all free public schools within the school district."

All of that is now in doubt.

This month, the state Board of Education rejected Hernando's application - along with all but three of the state's 67 counties - to solely oversee and sponsor public charter schools.

In so doing, the board allowed a new state body, the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission, to set up shop and oversee charters schools in the county. Charters are public schools that function independently under contract with local school boards and, now, the state.

On Tuesday, the Hernando County School Board plans to join a growing list of counties in appealing that decision. Officials say they might even rejoin a lawsuit against the state over the constitutionality of the measure.

"We as a county should be overseeing the charter schools in our area," said Chairman Charles "Pat" Fagan. "We've shown that we can work with a charter school, and it's worked out great for the community. I can't understand why they turned us down."

Legislators who created the FSE Commission in the spring of 2006, in the waning days of the Jeb Bush administration, said they did so in order to provide a level playing field for charters, which have found difficulty in working with some school boards.

But by all accounts, relations are good between the Hernando district and its only charter school, Gulf Coast Academy of Science and Technology. Last year, the board granted the school a 15-year contract extension after it garnered the second-highest score in the state among middle schools on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

And the district scored 78 percent on a state inventory of its relations with charter schools.

That wasn't good enough for the state Board of Education, which rejected even counties that scored above 90 percent on the inventory. Only three counties that achieved a perfect score - Orange, Polk and Sarasota - were given exclusive authority to oversee their charters.

Eight other counties were rejected even though they'd never seen a charter school application, on the grounds that they had "no discernible history" of authorizing them.

"You can't prove those districts are unfriendly to charters," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florid a School Boards Association.

Last year, his organization filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the FSE Commission, asserting that only school districts can operate or create public schools. Twelve districts, including Hernando, joined it, but the suit was later withdrawn in order to see whether the state might grant their requests to retain authority over charters.

Now that the state has denied all but three of those district applications, Blanton said, the battle lines are drawn.

"They are trying to get out from under any oversight and any accountability, and then they can run their charter schools any way they want," he said, referring to the FSE Commission. "And I don't think that's right."

J. Paul Carland, attorney for the Hernando board, said its first task is to lodge a formal appeal of the state's Nov. 2 order denying it exclusive authority over charter schools.

"I think it's appropriate to ensure at least that Hernando County's individual concerns are addressed," he said.

"There may be some interest in pursuing statewide litigation as well."

Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1431.

Overheard

"We as a county should be overseeing the charter schools in our area. We've shown that we can work with a charter school, and it's worked out great for the community. I can't understand why they turned us down."

Charles "Pat" Fagan, School Board chairman

[Last modified November 18, 2007, 20:37:43]