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Catale: Charter school won’t be new one
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The president of the Youngstown school board says he will challenge plans to open a new charter school at the site of Eagle Heights Academy, which the state has said must close with the end of this school year in June.
Anthony Catale said he is drafting a letter to Deborah Delisle, state superintendent of public instruction, urging that the Ohio Department of Education deny a charter to the school to be known as South Side Academy at 1833 Market St.
The Rev. Kenneth Simon, president of the Eagle Heights school board, said last week that the school’s sponsor, Ohio Council of Community Schools based in Toledo, is being asked to sponsor the new school, which would serve the same demographic group of K-8 children that Eagle Heights now serves.
Efforts are being made to keep the student body intact so the students can attend the new school in the fall, the Rev. Mr. Simon said, noting that some membership of the school board would be changed, and a new administrative team put into place.
Catale was critical of the plan to open what he believes would essentially be the same school that was ordered closed because of academic problems.
The state directed Eagle Heights, with about 750 students, to close because it earned a rating of academic emergency on each of its last two state annual local report cards.
If the school is allowed to re-open, that’s not holding them accountable as the state has promised, Catale said, adding that he has the same concern with any charter school producing the same academic results.
The intent to offer parents and students an alternative education through charter schools was good, “but what we have in our own community is a sham,” Catale said.
A check of 2009 report- card results showed that six of the 10 charter schools listed in Youngstown were rated in academic emergency, two were in academic watch, and two were in continuous improvement.
The Youngstown city school district itself is in state academic emergency, and the state has appointed an Academic Distress Commission to help draft a plan to improve the performance of city school students.
Despite that rating, Catale pointed out that the city schools still have much broader educational resources to help students achieve than any single charter school, and charter schools pull $5,700 a year out of the city schools for each child enrolled in a charter school.
Youngstown is losing about $35 million a year to charter schools that are failing, he said.
Catale said he will give his fellow school board members a copy of his letter and ask those who agree with his position to draft their own letter to Delisle.
Mr. Simon couldn’t be reached to comment on Catale’s plan.
He had said last week that the state is expected to act on the charter for the new school by May 15. That’s the state date for all charter-school contracts with their sponsors to be in place.