Ivy Withdraws in a Surprise Move
February 11, 2008 11:06 pm
The Ivy Charter School organizers surprised everybody tonight by withdrawing their appeal at the very last minute, just as the school board was poised to debate and vote.
In a legally questionable move, they intend to appeal directly to the state, before they’ve exhausted the formal appeal to the Portland Public Schools Board of Education. Even if the state accepts their appeal, they’ll find themselves in front of the PPS board again, where they’ve squandered a lot of good will.
The withdrawal was centered around the board resolution’s enrollment limit of 120 students (half what the organizers wanted), intended to ameliorate the “adverse impact” the charter would have had on neighborhood school enrollment. The board resolution also stipulated that the school be sited in a quadrant of town that would lessen this impact, presumably some place other than North or Northeast Portland.
I honestly had not read the board resolution until tonight, and didn’t fully understand that the charter school subcommittee of Ruth Adkins, Bobbie Regan and Trudy Sargent had put such strict conditions on the school. Kudos for them for placing the well-being of our neighborhood schools ahead of the needs of a charter. This proved to be the breaking point for this charter, and prevented a divisive debate and vote.
Terry Olson also has more coverage of this over on his blog.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
filed under: Charter Schools, Equity
February 12th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Many thanks to Ruth Adkins, Bobbie Regan and Trudy Sargent for acknowledging the potential harm to our public neighborhood schools from yet another charter school affecting the N/NE area, and for drafting the Ivy resolution accordingly.