The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Board of Education rejected the application of Pearl Creek STEAM Charter School Tuesday night in a unanimous vote.
Pearl Creek STEAM’s Academic Policy Committee submitted their application for the charter school to the district in August. The decision to reject it comes after two school board work sessions about the proposal.
On Tuesday, concerns about the school’s budget, facility, staffing, and enrollment were factors in the school board’s vote.
But April Monroe, a parent and member of the application and appeal committee for the charter school, says this is part of a pattern from the school district. She says it’s dismissive to teachers, parents, and students.
“We’re saying, hey we want to partner, we want to fix this,” says Monroe. “And the decision was just part of this continued refusal to do that, to engage in community and collaborate towards something that works.”
The APC says the school would help draw back some students that left for different out-of-district programs. School board members rebut that lower enrollment numbers are due to students leaving the state, more than leaving the district to outside programs.
“We are losing enrollment. It's not to other programs, it's not to here in our communities– it's too out of state,” says school board president Melissa Burnett. “People are leaving in droves right now. You can track enrollment back 20 years ago, we had close to 17,000 students. Now we have just over 11,000…that we have had to consolidate to match what our enrollment is.”
Many on the board say that opening the Pearl Creek charter school would force an immediate closure of another neighborhood elementary school. The APC estimated the cost of the charter school to the school district would be around $830,000. Andy DeGraw, the district's Chief Operations Officer, estimated the actual cost for the district to open the charter school is $2.8 million and would stay around that amount in the years to come.
Beyond the district budget, school board member Bobby Burgess and other members say that there is a lack of a full plan for the school and a lot of ambiguity on how to sustain the idea.
“Overall, I think there's some great aspiration in here, some great ideas,” says Burgess. “But the plan is lacking in detail, and I just don't see how it gets us to what is envisioned. I am concerned not only that the vision would not be met, but that the school could fail entirely.”
School board members expressed appreciation for the idea. But Burnett says the application just doesn’t gel with the financial state of the school district and the decline in staff and students.
“I really actually was looking forward to supporting this application, I really did,” says Burnett. “I really do support schools of choice. I think they’re great options for communities when everything lines up. And everything just does not line up with this.”
Monroe says she and others feel that they can use their experience with the district on this process, and go to the state to appeal the board's decision and receive more feedback on the proposal.
“I don’t think we’re getting a good faith affair or an honest review in Fairbanks,” says Monroe. “I think that the responses seen from the district are about protecting the system and protecting the status quo, and that we need to get enough distance that we can give a really genuine and legitimate review of whether or not the school is this great idea.”
Pearl Creek’s APC are still looking for ways to make the charter school happen.