The board of the Phoenix School is asking for the public’s support in appealing a decision by the Texas Education Agency to revoke the Greenville school’s charter.
A letter issued to parents of students at the school from board President Maxine Thomas MD, Superintendent Lula Turnipseed Edwards and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Derek Love said the school has been treated unfairly by the TEA.
“We are shocked, disappointed and have all been thrown off balance by the decision of the Commissioner and do not believe that the intent of the legislature in passing Senate Bill 2 was to close schools like Phoenix.,” the letter read. “The actions of the TEA have been capricious; we have been given no due process, as we appear to only represent numbers to them with no consideration of what we do. They went back 5 years instead of 3 to find infractions. Most were ‘Gotcha’ technical errors not because we are not academically and financially sound and compliant.”
A town hall meeting concerning the issue has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Zeta Building on the Phoenix campus.
The TEA announced last week that it had identified 14 open-enrollment charter schools, including Phoenix, that meet the legislative criteria for mandatory revocation of their charter under Senate Bill 2. Senate Bill 2, passed in 2013 by the Texas Legislature, requires mandatory revocation of a charter by the Commissioner of Education if a charter holder has failed to meet academic or financial accountability performance ratings for the three preceding school years.
Failure can include three years in one specific area (academic or financial), or any combination of the two. The TEA said the three school years where academic performance ratings were considered included 2010-2011, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. The school years where financial performance ratings were considered included 2011-2012, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014.
According to the Phoenix school letter, the TEA wants to revoke the school’s charter based on an academically unacceptable rating in 2010-2011, an unsatisfactory charter first rating in 2012-2013 and receiving received an academic improvement required status in 2013-2014.
The Phoenix school letter indicated that as of now, the school’s academic performance in reading, math, science, and social studies meets state standard.
“Our graduation rate fell below due to 4 out of 8 student’s not being accounted for prior to snap shot,” according to the letter. “An appeal was submitted, and the state denied.”
The charter first rating was said to be due to the financial audit document not being uploaded in a timely manner.
“There was a change in administration, and the financial audit was not submitted on time,” the letter said. “We have only failed one charter first.”
And the academic improvement required status was attributed to the school missing index 3- closing the achievement gap.
“Over a third of Texas schools missed this index,” the letter said.
According to the school’s letter, the TEA commissioner has appointed a local conservator to oversee the school’s closure.
“He is well known to dislike charters and has been actively seeking to take over Phoenix for some time now.” the letter said. “Further, the school must pay him $85 per hour plus travel expenses to do this. We must and will appeal the decision however, this consists initially of an ‘informal review’ by the TEA in which staff spends about 30 minutes to decide a school’s fate and quickly move onto other matters. Therefore, it is merely a formality. Rarely does any school win in this phase. Next is a review by a judge, but you are not allowed to put on an actual defense. Then the state confiscates your property and sells it, putting the state in the property management business.”
The letter asks the parents to encourage others to come to the defense of the Phoenix Charter School.
“You must let everyone you know and make it known to every legislator you know that a grave miscarriage of injustice is being committed by the TEA that needs to be corrected. Demand answers about what they are planning to do with our students and their range of special needs that were failing in other schools. It should be obvious by now that a cookie cutter approach to education is a flawed concept.”
According to the TEA, if the decision to revoke is upheld in an informal review, the issue would then be sent to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for a final hearing. In that instance, the decision of the administrative law judge is final and cannot be appealed.
The Phoenix School opened in 1986 and expanded to an open enrollment charter for the 2001/2002 school year. The school currently serves approximately 725 students in pre-K through the 12th grade.