SV Charter School Appeal Continues
Two Rounds Down, Several More to Go
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – The hearing process on the future of the Sugar Valley Rural Charter School may now be running into July.
Thursday night saw a second session relative to a February Keystone Central School Board decision to deny another five year charter for the Sugar Valley Rural Charter School. After three and a half hours of testimony the session ended, with the next round set for May 21.
The process will run into at least June as last night’s principal witness the district’s hired consultant Alex Dubil will be unable to attend the already scheduled May hearing. There were indications that a fifth round could be held in July.
The turnout Thursday night was considerably smaller than a month ago when more than 30 charter school supporters testified as to why the Keystone school board should overturn its earlier decision to deny the Loganton-based school another five years of operation. If the board, upon completion of the hearing, again votes to deny the charter, school backers can appeal that decision to the state charter school appeal board, as has been done successfully in the past.
The district earlier had released the results of a Dubil study of the charter operations which noted that school’s academic deficiencies as evidenced by the results of state testing. Last night a good portion of the testimony centered on the charter school’s record-keeping. Dubil said those records showed a number of school employees did not have required clearances; additionally his check of records showed some staff members were not properly certified.
The school board had voted 7-2 in February to deny the charter school’s request for another five year renewal.
If past practice follows, the board will again deny the school’s charter renewal. The Sugar Valley school has successfully appealed to the state Charter School Appeal Board after each local turndown. Five years ago the school board elected not to go to the hearing process and its turndown at the time went straight to the appeal board which overturned the local board decision.
The charter school has been in operation since the year 2000 and has an enrollment of 419 students from the Keystone Central, Jersey Shore and Penns Valley School Districts, most of them from Keystone Central.
