The board voted to deny the Arts to the Core Charter School Tuesday night.
The Harrisburg School Board tonight rejected the application of an arts-based charter school, with school board members citing an incomplete application and thin grassroots support.
The 7-3 vote denied the Arts to the Core School a five-year charter to begin a kindergarten through 8th grade program in the former Bishop McDevitt High School. Board members raised concerns over curriculum and community involvement of the Lancaster-based school.
School Board President Danielle Robinson said the curriculum was “not good enough,” adding that the school did not incorporate recommendations made after a York school district rejected the charter.
“The adjudication outlined what needed to be fixed, and the issues weren’t resolved,” she said.
School Board Vice President Ellis Roy called the concept “terrific,” but still voted against the charter.
“You have got to do the legwork and present a complete document, then I’d vote in favor,” he said.
School board members Jim Thompson, Judd Pittman and Matthew Krupp voted in support of the school, which had hoped to enroll 300 students this September.
Richard Caplan, Arts to the Core’s CEO, said these are not “valid criticisms.” He said it’s difficult to create curriculum for an arts-centered approach because it requires teachers to incorporate the arts “on the fly,” he said.
“The A+ Schools,” a North Carolina charter system that would have served as the basis for this school, “succeed because they incorporate arts dynamically,” he said. “In truth, arts in the school works because it challenges the teacher.”
Caplan said he is prepared to continue trying to bring the school to Harrisburg. He said he and his legal counsel will either submit an amended application to address the board’s concerns or appeal to the state’s Charter Appeal Board.
More than 40 people attended tonight’s meeting, including Mayor Eric Papenfuse and councilmembers Westburn Majors and Jeffery Baltimore. The entire Arts to the Core board, many from Lancaster, also attended the meeting, said Caplan.
Before the vote, Papenfuse spoke in support of the charter school, saying that it would give young families an incentive to stay in the city and expand the tax base.
“This would be a means of attracting new people to the district,” he told the board. “We need options to attract young parents into the city. I’ve spoken to many of them.”
The board considered offering a three-year charter if the Arts to the Core school met 13 criteria by February 2018. These stipulations included measures for curriculum development and securing the building.
The former building of Bishop McDevitt High School has sat vacant since 2012. The Arts to the Core Charter School proposed to renovate and use this building.
In this case, the school would use the 2017-18 school year to plan curriculum, which Superintendent Dr. Sybil Knight-Burney would have to approve. The school also would need to secure a lease agreement or sale of the Market Street building and complete all necessary renovations.
“The conditions, they were impossible,” Caplan said, adding that he could not secure the building without a charter.
These stipulations, including a requirement for fewer than 20 students per class, gave Pittman confidence in the charter school, though he called the application “ill-prepared” and questioned the Lancaster-based group’s commitment to Harrisburg.
“Our superintendent has the power to control the curriculum,” he said to the board. “All of that is in our control.”
Pittman said he would like to see the same tenacity and scrutiny applied to the district’s own curriculum, which offended Robinson, who has served on the board for five years.
“I’m proud of our teachers, our community and what we have accomplished in the past five years,” she said. “We have ways to go, but we are nowhere close to where we were before.”
For Robinson and Ausha Green, the additional conditions needed to implement the school led them to vote against the charter.
“We had other charters that did not make it through [the board’s vote]. Why do we have to walk them through?” Robinson said.
Green put it this way: “Come here correct or don’t come at all.”
The school’s community involvement also raised concerns for Robinson.
“[Caplan] has pandered to the Latino community without [English-language learners] curriculum,” she said.
Caplan said his school donated to two organizations, one including LOOP, in return for help petitioning. He denied pandering to Hispanic organizations.
“We have more than 500 kids signed up, and most of them were not Hispanic,” he said.
Board members also questioned the group’s commitment to Harrisburg.
“If this is so good, why not bring it home [to Lancaster]?” Robinson said.
Caplan said the school has the support of six or seven community groups including the Susquehanna Art Museum and the Harrisburg Opera.
For more information about the Arts to the Core Charter School, visit the Facebook page.
Author: Danielle Roth
