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Charter school up for renewal
Regents to consider a recommendation as misgivings are raised  
  
By RICK CLEMENSON, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, June 24, 2007

SCHENECTADY -- The state Board of Regents Monday morning will consider a recommendation to renew the International Charter School of Schenectady's charter, despite a public school chief's misgivings.
  
The charter school, located in Rotterdam, opened its doors in September 2002 to 267 students and now has about 700. On Monday's agenda is the state Education Department's proposal to give the kindergarten to eighth-grade school a one-year charter extension until July 31, 2008.

Schenectady city schools Superintendent Eric Ely expressed concerns over the renewal.

The charter school projects having 693 students next school year, but is billing the Schenectady school district for 715 students, Ely said. Those numbers could be even lower, Ely said, estimating five to 10 students a day are transferring out of the charter school to his district. Ely also questioned the performance of the charter school's students on math and English tests.

Doris Belton, charter school board president, admitted the school's test scores "are not what we expect them to be."

As a result, its administrators fired the school's management company, SABIS Educational Systems, in March. Consultant J. Efrain Martinez was hired by the board in the aftermath of SABIS' removal.

"We felt we weren't moving educationally where we wanted to go," Belton said.

Ely said he has heard reports from parents of students fighting in classrooms and teachers who have been threatened and are afraid to go to work. Custodians have had to fill in as educators on occasion, Ely said. He noted nearly half of the school's teachers have left after less than a year on the job, as mentioned in the state Education Department's report.

Belton denied the allegations.

"It's all hearsay. He's never been to the school. There is nothing irregular happening here," Belton said.

Jonathan Burman, state Education Department spokesman, said the school meets all the state requirements and regulations for a charter school and has shown "the ability to operate in an educationally and fiscally sound manner."

"Of course they are (fiscally sound). We give them a lot of money," Ely said. The district is budgeted to give the charter school nearly $8 million next year, he said.

The charter school gets most of its funding from the city schools because charter schools are paid on a per-head basis by the districts in which their students live, according to Adrienne Leon, city schools spokeswoman.

Monday's Board of Regents meeting will begin at 9:45 a.m. in the fifth floor seminar room at the state Education Department building.

The Regents oversees the Education Department and licenses about half the state's charter schools annually. The State University of New York board of trustees licenses the other half.