Office Urged Nixing Charter

Gloucester Daily Times story here.

It should be noted that the charter office consists of individuals who are hired by the state to rigorously and vigorously review charter applications. Members of the charter office attend public hearings, attend applicant interviews and review applications. The charter school office recommended not to recommend the GCA charter in late January or early February of 2009.

Before this recommendation was made the 3 1/2 hour public hearing had taken place on December 11, 2008 (2 members of the charter office attended along with the assistant commissioner--no voting Board of Education member attended our hearing), 151 letters opposing the school and 16 letters supporting the school had been received by the commissioner/charter office, a charter applicant interview had transpired and the January 27, 2009 Board of Education meeting had taken place during which the board voted to retroactively waive the requirement that a voting board member be present at our hearing.

In short, the charter office did not make a recommendation in a vacuum. Between January 30, 2009 and February 13, 2009 Commissioner Mitchell Chester chose to dismiss the charter office's recommendation. How can his recommendation to approve the GCA charter be explained?

Please attend the public hearing on Monday, June 8th--5 p.m. at City Hall--being held by state legislators to draw attention to possible procedural errors in the application and approval process for the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School.