Struggling to Make the Grade: Company That Wants to Open Charter School on YWCA Campus Has History of Problems

By Sheena Dooley, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

May 12–A company that wants to open a charter school on theYWCA campus on Wells Street has a history of poor academic performance and financial problems in other states.

Ball State University, which grants approval for new charter schools, will decide by September whether Imagine Schools of Arlington, Va., can open the school as soon as fall 2007.

Last month, local philanthropist and businessman Don Willis agreed to buy the campus and plans to sell it to Imagine, one of the nation’s largest education-management companies.

Since 2002, at least 35 schools have cut ties with Imagine or Chancellor Beacon Academies, which Imagine acquired in June 2004, because of problems ranging from high teacher and student turnover to low test scores, among other things.

Willis said he is aware of the company’s problems, but does not expect similar ones in Fort Wayne because he will have influence over how the school is run. “It’s not a normal Imagine school thing,” Willis said. “We are planning on doing a school the way I would expect it to run.”

Jason Bryant, Imagine’s regional vice president in Fort Wayne, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In a March article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, however, Imagine director Aaron Kindel acknowledged the company’s problems while saying the charter-school

industry “is young and evolving and lessons have been learned through the process.”

Willis would not provide such details as how many students the Fort Wayne school would enroll or in what grades. However, in a news release last month, he said it would support early graduation and bring students to their maximum learning levels faster.

Imagine operates 54 schools in 12 states outside Indiana, bringing in about $100 million a year. Dennis Bakke and his wife, Eileen, founded the company in 2004 after they bought out Chancellor Beacon, a Florida-based educational management company.

Barbara Downey, interim director of the Office of Charter Schools at Ball State, said Imagine will go through a “rigorous” application process, and that only a select few are invited to submit a full proposal after her office reviews an initial statement of intent. She said Imagine, which has never filed an application with Ball State before, has been forthright about its checkered past during meetings with her office.

“They were very open about the problems other schools have had,” Downey said. “It does have an impact (in the application process). Academic success is a very top priority, as well as a group that can maintain their financial obligations and governance.”

A 2005 survey of educational management companies by Arizona State University cited some of the specific reasons charter schools severed their connection with Imagine, which included the company’s hiring of a principal who was a felon on probation and its failure to meet performance expectations.

Since the survey was released, additional schools have followed suit for varying reasons:

–University of Missouri-St. Louis officials refused to renew the charter of one of two Imagine schools it sponsored because of low test scores and mismanagement by board members, said university spokesman Bob Samples. Before Thurgood Marshall Academy closed a year ago, its board president allegedly used a school credit card to gamble at a local casino and buy airline tickets.

The university’s other Imagine charter school has fewer problems, but its students also have failed to make progress academically, Samples said.

–The State University of New York Board of Trustees pulled its sponsorship of Imagine’s Central New York Charter School of Math and Science after the university recommended it do so in a blistering 60-page report. Officials said the school’s curriculum lacked rigor and was ineffective, resulting in test scores that consistently fell below those of area public schools. They also cited high staff and student turnover, nonexistent professional development and their difficulty in obtaining financial records from the school. In the report, the school’s director told university officials it seemed Imagine viewed the school’s academic performance as less important than its “ability to help build more schools” for the company.

–Southwest Charter School in Kansas City, Mo., will close this summer after Central Missouri State University denied an extension of its charter. The college preparatory school suffered from high teacher and student turnover, large amounts of debt and unqualified staff, said Rick Sluder, Dean of Education and Human Services at the college.

Schools managed by the company also closed in North Carolina and Florida for similar reasons.

“Imagine came to town and spent a lot of money,” Sluder said. “But there are fundamental management concerns that were not fixed, and those are essential for providing services and letting the school excel.”

A majority of Indiana’s 29 charter schools are run by educational management companies such as Imagine, said Ron Gibsen, director of the Indiana Charter School Advocacy. They equip schools with curriculum, fiscal-management services and staff who oversee day-to-day operations. For the most part, they have been successful at educating children, he said.

Only two schools in the state have lost their charters, one being Urban Brightest Community Academy in Fort Wayne, Gibsen said. Ball State pulled its sponsorship in July 2004, citing lagging enrollment and mounting debt, among other things.

Fort Wayne’s other charter school, Timothy Johnson Academy, run by the Leona Group, serves 226 students in grades kindergarten through eighth. A majority of those students come from low-income, minority households.

Gibsen, who has met with Imagine officials twice, said the company has expressed an interest in opening more schools in Indiana should its plans in Fort Wayne be approved.

“Indiana charter school authorizers are serious about accountability,” Gibsen said. “If a school opens in Indiana and has those characteristics, they won’t be in business very long.”

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What Ball State looks for in a potential charter school

–Compelling mission

–Educational vision

–Well-reasoned curriculum

–Organizational strength and leadership

–Community support

–Solid budget

–Plans for facilities

–Aggressive but realistic goals

What is a charter school?

Charter schools, which by law cannot charge tuition, receive the same per-student funding from the state as traditional schools do. In exchange for more educational freedom than their public counterparts, they must meet stricter accountability measures. Those include additional testing and site visits from either Ball State or the Indianapolis mayor’s office, which grant their charters.

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The application process

1. Statement of intent from the company

2. Evaluation of statement by review team

3. Informal interview

4. Invitation to apply

5. Proposal submitted/received

6. Evaluation of proposal

7. Formal, in-depth interview

8. Request for public meeting

9. Review team deliberation and report

10. President’s decision

11. Contract negotiated

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

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