Germantown charter school parents demand action

Several parents of special education students from Germantown Settlement Charter School are demanding action because they say an exodus of qualified staff and a lack of services for their children has created an educational emergency.

At least three parents have contacted the state Department of Education and the nonprofit Education Law Center seeking assistance. But they are finding that the state's 1997 charter school law provides little help.

The law gives districts the power to close a charter school immediately if there is a "serious risk" to the health and safety of students and staff, but not for educational lapses.

The health and safety provision "is the only situation where a shutdown can occur," said Michael Race, a spokesman for the Department of Education.

"This whole [school] year is being lost," said Tanya Farmer, who has been trying for months to get special education services for one of her three foster children. "They don't even have regular teachers. They just have substitutes."

Special-education teacher Shober Hairston, who quit last week, said he spoke to three parents who had phoned Harrisburg to complain.

"I think the school should close," Hairston said, adding that the shortage of qualified teachers and the lack of instruction "was setting kids up for failure."

But the officials are focused on Feb. 24, when the state will hear the school's appeal of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission's October decision to deny the school a new operating charter. The city school district has asked the state Charter Appeal Board to reject the appeal because the charter did not file the proper documents.

If the state agrees with the district, the charter would be forced to close immediately, district officials said.

Cornelia Swinson, acting president of the charter school board, could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Conditions at the school have worsened since the SRC voted to close the school on Oct. 15. Because the school appealed, it was allowed to stay open. The SRC voted to close the school on grounds that it had violated conditions of its original charter, was plagued by fiscal mismanagement, had a history of poor academic performance, and failed to meet several state requirements, including having at least 75 percent of its teachers certified.

As The Inquirer reported last week, more than 17 teachers and administrators have quit since September, including the special education director and the principal.

Eleven of the school's 29 teachers have quit since September. Fewer than half the classroom teachers are certified. Substitutes and instructors who have applied for emergency certificates are covering many of the classes. The top remaining administrator is the school's director of human resources.

Members of the charter school's board are taking turns overseeing day-to-day operations of the school, which has 440 fifth through eighth graders at two campuses, at 4811 Germantown Ave. and 5538 Wayne Ave., according to a letter from Swinson last week.

The dean of students at the Wayne Avenue campus left last Friday.

In his resignation letter, former principal Jeffrey Williams wrote: "Economic challenges have brought to question concerns about student safety and welfare." In addition, he said, "recent staff resignations have seriously compromised the quality of education the students are receiving at Germantown Settlement Charter School."

Williams, who quit Jan. 8, said he never received a response to his letter.

Benjamin W. Rayer, associate superintendent for charter schools in Philadelphia, said he could not comment on the turmoil at Germantown Settlement while the case is on appeal.

Lawrence Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, said it would be a terrible precedent for the state or the school district to move to close the school before its appeal is heard.

"It is always a difficult situation when you appeal, but there is a due process," Jones said. "It needs to be followed."

If the charter is closed, Jones said, the coalition would work with the district to help find new schools for the students.

Farmer was one of the parents who have contacted the Education Law Center and the Department of Education's Bureau of Special Education since last week to voice concerns about the lack of special education services at Germantown Settlement.

"The legal structure doesn't seem to provide them the help they need," said Len Rieser, codirector of the Education Law Center in Center City.

Race said that although the Bureau of Special Education had heard from some parents, none had filed a formal complaint. The department, he said, investigates such complaints and has the power to order a school to make changes.

Farmer said that charter board members assured parents last week that the school would remain open throughout this academic year and would reopen in September.

No matter what happens, the North Philadelphia woman said, the three foster children she enrolled in Germantown Settlement in late August will not return.

"They are not learning anything," she said. "Enough is enough."

Farmer made arrangements yesterday with the school district's Central East Regional office to transfer the children to their local neighborhood school. They were scheduled to register at Ferguson Academics Plus today.

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