The writing is on the blackboard for the Germantown Settlement Charter School.
Teachers are leaving in droves. Students aren't getting basic services. Some classrooms are without heat. State and federal probes into funding issues continue.
The time has long passed to shut down the troubled middle school, and get the kids into a better learning environment. Closing the school is in the best interest of its students.
The School Reform Commission found cause in October to order the school closed. The school has remained open pending an appeal. The issue should've been resolved sooner.
The school is in disarray. Barely able to pay its bills, the school last week managed to stave off an eviction order at its campus at 5538 Wayne Ave. But problems remain that undermine the learning process. Since September, more than 17 teachers and administrators have quit, including the principal and vice principal. There's no nurse or school psychologist. The human-resources director is the highest-ranking administrator.
Former staffers told Inquirer reporter Martha Woodall that special-education students are not getting basic services such as language or speech therapy. Student records are outdated, and the school lacks resources.
As one former teacher described it, "They are playing school." Only this is no playing matter. The school enrolls 440 students in grades five through eight who deserve better.
Even former principal Jeffrey Williams expressed concern about the health and safety of the students in his resignation letter to the school's board.
But the charter's board appears paralyzed after its president, Emanuel Freeman, recently stepped down. He remains president of the nonprofit that runs the school.
All of this comes amid probes by state and federal law-enforcement agencies into allegations that the school diverted some of the $31 million in taxpayer money it received over nine years in order to prop up other nonprofits operated by its parent group.
The school district says the problems are what prompted the School Reform Commission to deny the school a new five-year operating charter. District officials are monitoring the latest crisis.
Charter school officials have tried to downplay the latest problems, saying that the heating problem has been fixed and that the board is trying to fill staff vacancies.
Perhaps they are too focused on their legal battle to recognize the gravity of the situation. The state will hear a request by the School Reform Commission on Feb. 24 to dismiss the school's appeal.
If the state agrees, the school will be forced to close immediately, according to district officials.
Why delay the inevitable and keep students in an environment that threatens their well-being and academic growth?
Steps should be taken now to transfer students to a more stable school, where they have a chance to learn.