Harrisburg schools leader makes it clear she has no time for charter schools

Premier Arts and Science Charter School

At a Monday evening meeting, Harrisburg School District Receiver Janet Samuels announced plans to continue the process necessary to shut down Premier Arts and Science Charter School.

At 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, a line of parents stood outside of Premier Arts and Science Charter School waiting to pick up their children after their first day of classes in the 2019-20 school year.

A little less than three hours later, the district’s new receiver Janet Samuels held a public meeting, where she announced that a process intended to shut down the charter school at the corner of State and North 17th streets will continue.

At that same meeting, Samuels announced plans to block another charter school, Pennsylvania STEAM Academy, from opening. And that’s all while criticizing the performance of cyber charter schools.

“Students who attend cyber charter schools struggle mightily,” Samuels said, before pitting the Harrisburg School District against local charters.

“Here in the Harrisburg School District, we are ready to compete with any and all charter schools in this region, in this area,” she said.

With that said, Samuels presented and approved a resolution that allows Harrisburg School District officials to move forward with proceedings to close Premier Charter School, which is currently operating without an approved agreement.

That’s the case after the district’s elected school board members moved last year to begin a process that would revoke Premier’s charter, citing charter leadership’s failure to report accurate enrollment numbers as well as lower-than-expected attendance rates and underperformance on standardized tests.

Premier officials appealed.

As part of that appeal, a series of public hearings about the revocation were expected to take place, but they were postponed multiple times for differing reasons, Samuels said.

Until those hearings are held, Premier can remain open to serve its more than 200 students, said Samuels, the court-appointed leader of a state takeover of Harrisburg schools. She alone holds nearly all decision-making power in the district.

The resolution approved at Monday’s meeting is intended to reinvigorate the push to do away with the charter and to schedule another set of public hearings.

This time, the resolution — which can be seen below — included a lengthy list of accused wrongdoings by Premier leadership, which serves as Harrisburg officials’ justification for not renewing the charter.

In the resolution, that wrongdoing is described as “Premier’s egregious and material violations of applicable law.”

Again, Premier officials were criticized for failing to report accurate data, including enrollment and attendance figures, which could have a negative impact on the entire district’s state funding while also leading to higher payouts to charter schools.

Premier students also are underperforming academically, according to the resolution, which cites low school performance profile and standardized test scores.

“There has been a decline in the percentage of children that are performing at the advanced and proficient levels,” Samuels said of Premier’s standardized test scores. “There is clearly an increase in the number of students who are performing at below-basic levels.”

That’s all in addition to “significant staff turnover,” violations of the State’s Sunshine Act and failing to secure proper clearance information for charter board members, according to the resolution.

“During the charter term, one board member had a felony conviction,” the resolution states, pointing out that’s a violation of state law.

Those are just a few justifications listed in the resolution for non-renewal of Premier’s charter.

“In this comprehensive resolution it’s quite clear why I wish to proceed in terms of the hearings related to the non-renewal proceedings against the Premier Charter School,” Samuels said.

It is not immediately clear when the hearings will be held or where they will take place, Samuels said after the meeting.

It also is unclear whether successful proceedings could lead to closing Premier in the middle of the 2019-20 school year.

“I can’t answer those questions,” Samuels said.

The charter serves more than 200 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, Samuels said. She added that Harrisburg School District has the capacity to absorb all of them and urged parents to consider transferring their children to district schools.

About 8 p.m. Monday night, Premier administrator Querida Smith spoke over the phone, explaining she was unaware of what happened at the meeting, so she could not comment on the resolution.

Last week, Premier spokesman Anwar Curtis said school officials were optimistic about the 2019-20 school year.

"We are looking forward to a successful school year,” Curtis said. “Everything is looking good for us.”

On Monday, Samuels also presented and approved a second resolution to thwart the opening of Pennsylvania STEAM Academy Charter — a school specializing in science, technology, engineering, art and math proposed for Harrisburg’s Midtown neighborhood.

According to the second resolution, school board member’s denied STEAM Academy’s charter application in February.

In April, STEAM Academy officials filed a petition to appeal that decision in Dauphin County Court, and at an Aug. 2 hearing that petition was granted.

“The court granted PA STEAM’s petition despite various objections raised by the school district,” the second resolution states.

Now, Samuels is instructing the district’s attorney to file its own appeal, taking the case to Commonwealth Court in a further attempt to prohibit the creation of yet another charter school.

“I’ll say it again: Harrisburg School District is ready to compete in a very bold and courageous way with any and all charter schools in this area,” Samuels said.

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