Newark Students May ‘Lose A Home And Family’ If Charter Schools Close (VIDEOS)

NEWARK, NJ — The state may end up shutting their schools down, but these Newark teachers, parents and students don’t plan to go quietly.

After receiving an order in March from the New Jersey Department of Education to shut their doors at the end of the school year, administrators at two of three of the affected schools have issued official statements lambasting the impending closures.

The three schools - Newark Prep Charter School, Paulo Friere Charter School, and Merit Prep Charter School – had all been on probation prior to the decision, according to the DOE.

• See related article: 3 Newark Charter Schools Ordered To Shut Down

Administrators at Newark Prep and Paulo Friere Charter School have said that while there is little they can do in a practical legal sense to fight the closures, they plan to make their voices heard.

MERIT SCHOOL: NO APPEAL PLANNED

“While there will be no appeal in the legal sense, which would take months they don’t have to save the school, Merit Prep is officially requesting that the state defer its closure decision until after the PARCC assessment results come in,” representatives for the school stated earlier this month.

In a March 10 letter to Acting NJ DOE Commissioner Kimberly Harrington, Merit Prep administrators wrote that they were “devastated” by the state’s plans to close their school. Read the full letter here.

However - instead of anger - parents, teachers and students expressed their deep love and appreciation for the school and their desire to save it, administrators stated.

“Merit Prep was designed to help students who struggle both academically and personally,” school administrators stated. “Many students came from schools in Newark – both charter and district – where they were either expelled or bullied, and there’s a deep fear that the students will now have to return to those kinds of environments. They want to stay at a school that meets them where they are, that is a safe haven and feels like home. Merit Prep is more than just a building. It is home. It is family. And right now, students and parents feel like they are losing both.”

PAULO FRIERE: "TREATED UNJUSTLY"

Administrators at Paulo Friere Charter School issued the following statement to parents and guardians on March 24:

“While we firmly believe that we have been treated unjustly, unfortunately, there is very little we can realistically do to address this situation. The appeal process has not garnered positive results in the past, and the cost would simply bankrupt our school and cause us to sacrifice our academic program. Even if we were to win, which is very unlikely based on historic outcomes of other schools, it would leave us financially weakened moving forward. For this reason, while it breaks our heart, we have decided that the best course of action will be to invest our time in ensuring the best and most seamless transition for your children and our staff.”

However, administrators alleged that the state’s reasons for closing their school are based on faulty information.

“After careful review by the Board of Trustees, administration, and our outside counsel, we firmly believe that the decision by the state to close our school was based on an arbitrary and biased assessment done by the Office of Charter Schools. To be clear, we have come to believe that the Commissioner's decision to close our school was based on misrepresented and inaccurate information.”

Specifically, administrators blamed the report which served as a basis for the Commissioner decision, alleging that it violated state probationary site visit protocols and was “substantially anecdotal with very little quantitative data supporting the claims.”

Paulo Friere Charter School administrators added:

“The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) stated that our school was being closed due to underperformance. However, this statement is false and serves no purpose other than to disrupt and hurt the hard work of our parents, students, and staff. For example, the state has claimed that our school had 18 students who did not graduate on time, but this statement is misleading and inaccurate. The state also used this data to adjust our graduation rate; however, the adjusted graduation rate for our school is still higher than that of Newark’s comprehensive high schools. Moreover, our PSAT and SAT data is also higher than Newark’s comprehensive high schools, and other independent charter schools in the city. This data actually supports that our students are outperforming their peers.”

NEWARK PREP CHARTER

As of Thursday, the Newark Prep Charter School website does not mention the impending closure and is still accepting applications for the 2017-18 year.

However, Jeff Kwitowski, a spokesman for K12 Inc., which provides curriculum and school programs for Newark Prep, told NJ.com in March that the decision comes as a shock.

“School officials had multiple conversations and several site visits with department officials over the past couple months, and no indication was given that the department was planning to close the school,” Kwitowski said.

Newark Prep students have started an online petition in support of their school, which can be seen here.

"We the students of Newark Prep Charter School would like to gather signatures of the public, other students, and parents to inform the state of New Jersey of the great improvement Newark Prep Charter School has made this past year," the petition states. "We would also like to bring it to the attention of the state they are removing jobs from teachers that care about their students and displacing students from the school that they love. If Newark Prep Charter School could stay open it would impact the school community and the student's families greatly. This year alone the senior class has received over 4 million dollars in scholarships. With this accomplishment from the students, we believe that Newark Prep Charter School should be renewed."

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Main Photo/Video: Merit Prep Charter School