School Board Members Blast Approval of Charter School

While School Superintendent Carmen A. Granto has been gracious about the state Board of Regents approval of the Niagara Charter School, several School Board members have little good to say about the Regents or the charter school.

Board member Mark Zito said he particularly was annoyed with Chancellor Robert M. Bennett of Buffalo, among the Regents who voted for the charter school, since it will take $1.2 million in state aid from the Niagara Falls district.

“He received an award from this district before, and then he stole more than $1 million from it (for the charter school),” Zito said during a School Board meeting Monday night. “He should be ashamed of himself.”

Board member Carmelette Rotella said she also was disgruntled that money will be spent on the charter school when it opens in September 2006. She said it should be used to help city schools, whose children are making great strides in math and English.

Board members and Granto have said they believe that if the state wants to experiment with children’s lives, it should cover the cost and not hurt public school children by taking money away from them.

“The worst piece of legislation ever passed was the charter school (legislation),” Rotella said.

One objection, she said, is the people the state gave the charter to will start up a school modeled after the Enterprise Charter School in Buffalo.

“Enterprise did not score anywhere as high as we did on the state assessment tests. It was one of the worst performing schools in the City of Buffalo, and they still gave out the charter. It’s totally unbelieveable. It’s senseless,” Rotella said.

“Taxpayers ought to be up in arms over the whole thing. More than a million dollars will be taken from our school district and given to that charter school even though we have a proven program and they don’t.

“Our scores went way up in literacy, and then we had to go and cut 10 literacy coaches because of the resulting budget constraints we face on account of the charter school. (Regents and the state) say they want us to succeed and get our scores up. So we do. And what do they do? They jerk the rug from under us and take over $1 million from us. It’s unconscionable.”

Rotella added, “I don’t think the Board of Regents knows what it’s doing. . . . They can’t even follow their own policies. They’ve changed their Regents action plan every year for the past 10 years. Now they are going back to the math — algebra, geometry and trigonometry — which I used to teach when I first started teaching high school. First they change everything, make us purchase new books and retrain everybody. Then they go and change everything back again.”

Board Vice President Robert Kazeangin complimented Granto for having the foresight to provide money in the district budget to pay for the charter school.

He said he also appreciated Granto’s public remarks that “He’ll move on and work with the charter school to make sure all children in Niagara Falls get a quality education . . . which is our goal.”

e-mail: pwestmoore@buffnews.com