Truebright charter school fights for its future

Truebright Science Academy Charter School is ramping up its fight to stay open past June.

The Olney school filed a petition in Commonwealth Court on Monday, challenging the Philadelphia School Reform Commission's 2013 decision not to renew its charter on several grounds, including poor academic performance.

The school decided to take its battle to Commonwealth Court because the state Charter Appeal Board voted unanimously in December to uphold the SRC's decision and ordered the school to close at the end of the current school year.

Brian H. Leinhauser, Truebright's attorney, said the school had asked the court "for an expedited review so that we can have an answer on our appeal before the start of school for 2015-16."

The charter school has 350 students in seventh through 12th grades at 407 E. Roosevelt Blvd.

School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said Tuesday that the SRC was confident Commonwealth Court would affirm the state board's decision.

In the opinion upholding the SRC's action, the seven-member board said Truebright failed to meet the performance goals in its original charter and fell short of state academic standards.

Truebright pledged in its charter to raise math and reading scores by at least 20 percentage points. The appeals board found that Truebright consistently had a low percentage of students who scored proficient or better on state tests and had "shown no clear signs of improvement."

In its defense, Truebright argued that it outperformed many nearby district schools and had "shown a trend of upward performance."

The school opened in 2007 with a mission "to offer an educational model that will equip all students with the core skills necessary to succeed in the highest-ranked colleges and the competitive world beyond."

Truebright is one of more than 100 charter schools across the country operated by followers of Fethullah Gülen, a Turk who lives in self-imposed exile in the Poconos.

The school's board and administrators are for the most part Turkish nationals.

One former teacher filed a federal lawsuit alleging the school had engaged in a pattern of hiring, promoting, and paying less-qualified Turkish nationals more than American-born educators who were certified and had more experience. The former teacher reached a settlement with Truebright in 2013.