CHARTER SCHOOL BACKERS TIRED OF WAITING

After a Wheaton Warrenville School District 200 committee vote against a district-developed charter school, a group of area residents plans to submit a proposal for a privately run charter high school in the district.

Andrew Carson, who has pushed for a District 200 charter school for more than three years, said last week he is tired of waiting for district officials to come up with a charter school proposal. The Wheaton resident said he has organized his own committee and hopes to submit a proposal for a charter high school–an independent but publicly financed school–in the next few months.

“For whatever reason, the district has been stalling, and I am not willing to wait anymore,” said Carson, who has two children in Wheaton Warrenville schools. “I’ve tried to work with them; a lot of us have. I do not think the district is serious about starting a charter school, and that’s fine. There are a lot of residents out there who are.”

Carson is not the only parent peeved with District 200’s charter school approach. Stephanie Golemba, co-president of Charter School 200, said her group is “pretty disgruntled” with the process.

“We’ve been patient and we have agreed to work with the administration because we believe cooperation is the best route,” said Golemba, whose group consists of 100 pro-charter school families. “But we are rethinking our approach after the [District 200 charter school] committee fiasco. We need to decide whether we are going to work internally with them, or just go ahead and submit our own plan.”

Though charter schools have been a hot topic in District 200 since the Ball Foundation first proposed an elementary charter school in 1996, Carson’s plan is the first attempt at starting one at the high school level. He does not have specific ideas for the school, but said it might center on a technology- and science-based curriculum or a Great Books approach. He said he has contacted three charter school management companies about running the innovative school and has talked with local university officials about curriculum development.

District 200 has had a strong pro-charter school group since 1996. Golemba’s group, of which Carson is a former member, has developed at least two detailed proposals. But district officials have been lukewarm to the idea, and the group never submitted a proposal, in part because members feared an outright rejection by the school board.

Last year, hoping to reach a consensus, newly appointed Supt. Gary Catalani set up a 13-member task force to look into a district-sponsored charter elementary school, one that would be run by the district but, as a charter, would be free of many state mandates. Golemba said the pro-charter forces agreed to withhold their formal proposal and work with administrators.

The 13-member committee included Carson, Golemba, district officials, parents, teachers and school board members. It met four times and, during the first week in May, voted 9-3 against a district charter school proposal.

But Carson argues that district officials never intended to develop a charter school proposal. He said they created the committee to stallthe pro-charter school groups. He said the committee was stacked with anti-charter school forces and said the meetings were not thoughtful discussions of ideas but more like “bull sessions.”

Golemba is less harsh with her criticism, saying she respects the administrators who organized it. Still, she termed it a “joke” and said she was disappointed with the lack of rigorous research analysis about charter schools.

Assistant Supt. Margo Sorrick, who headed the committee, argued that the task force was balanced and said it engaged in thoughtful discussions. But Sorrick said the group could not reach a consensus because there were too many ideas floating around. Some members wanted a charter school with a foreign-language curriculum, others wanted one for at-risk kids, and still others supported one for pre-kindergarten pupils. Some flat out opposed any charter school.

“The charge of this committee was to determine if there was sufficient interest and support to develop a charter school,” Sorrick said. “We had extensive discussions, and the group could not reach a consensus partly due to the diversity of interests.

“We made every effort to have a balanced committee, and I think this committee was a fair representation of the different voices out there. As a public agency, we have varying interests, and we have to meet the concerns of all our stakeholders.”

Sorrick scoffed at Carson’s assertion that the committee was a delaying tactic, pointing out that the pro-charter school forces could have submitted a proposal any time. She also said the district still is willing to discuss charter school options.

While Carson would not rule out that option, he said pro-charter forces have been “amazingly good-mannered to the point of foolishness. We’re tired of waiting.”