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Victory School Loses State Charter

Posted on: Friday, 21 April 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Steven Carter, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Apr. 21--SALEM -- Victory Middle School, a 116-student charter school in Northeast Portland, will be out of business in August.

The Oregon Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday not to extend the school's charter for another year, which means the school will no longer get state money after the school year ends.

Board members agreed with an Oregon Department of Education staff analysis that the school had not completed the academic and managerial improvements promised by organizers when the state board extended the charter last year.

Victory, located in the Blazers Boys and Girls Club on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, opened in 2003 with a state charter after the Portland School Board rejected its proposal. State law allows for state board sponsorship of a charter school if a local school district rejects it, and Victory is the first such school to get a state charter. The only other state-sponsored charter school is Four Rivers Elementary School in the Ontario School District.

Victory Principal Cottrell B. White Jr. said after the meeting he wasn't sure what happens next. White, a former Portland Public Schools teacher and administrator, praised state department staff for trying to help the school.

"We made improvements, but we just didn't quite get there," he said.

Victory's first year was marked by staff and student turnover. White came on board in fall 2004. Enrollment stabilized and began to grow. The school has 116 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

Sue Roberts, vice chairwoman of Victory's charter board, said student behavior problems that had disrupted the school in the first year have disappeared.

"There have been struggles," she said, "but each year we have progressed."

Data shared with the state board indicated that Victory students were not progressing in math or reading performance. A department staff report in March said the school had not met all the financial reporting and student evaluation goals that had been set out in its improvement plan. The Education Department staff recommended that the charter not be renewed.

Jerry Berger, board vice chairman, noted the board had gone against a recommendation from the staff last year when the board decided to give Victory one more year to improve. The charter management tried but fell short, he said.

Oregon has 66 charter schools. Six of them -- including Victory -- are in Portland.

Charter schools are public, taxpayer-supported schools that operate independently under a charter, or contract, with a local school district that spells out operating and performance goals. Charter schools are free of many of the regulations that govern regular public schools.

The state board also unanimously rejected a request for state sponsorship from the proposed Estacada Arthur Academy Charter School.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

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Source: The Oregonian

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