One Charter School Gets Thumbs Down; Another Appeals Rejection

A score card might help in keeping up with the charter schools situation in Bensalem.

At this point, over the last few months:

• One school application was withdrawn
• One school has been approved by the school board
• One was rejected last week
• A decision on another is expected next week

Meanwhile, yet another charter school application, rejected a year ago, is now the subject of an appeal.

The board turned thumbs down Feb. 8 on the proposed K-12 Bucks Academy Charter School. That unanimous decision came after Superintendent David Baugh recently said the application did not align with state standards.

The founders of that school included former Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Mike Fanning; township policeman Andrew MacDougal; William Schilling, principal at the New Foundations Charter School in Philadelphia; and local businessman Ken McBrearty. The school was planned for an industrial park at 520 State Road.

Up next is a decision on the proposed Isaac Newton Academy Charter School, which is being planned by the same people who operate the MaST Charter School in Philadelphia. That board action is expected to be taken at its next meeting, Feb. 22, board President Heather Nicholas said this week.

MaST was recently named by Philadelphia Magazine one of the best schools in the city and was honored nationally in 2007 as the best charter school in the country. Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo supports INACS, which like MaST would focus on math, science and technology. It would eventually be a K-12 school, starting off as K-4.

During a hearing that began Dec. 19 and concluded Feb. 11, the board and INACS representatives had not yet come to an agreement over whether certain curriculum information supplied to the district after the initial filing would be accepted by the board.

The recent spate of charter school hearings began in early December. That's when the founder of the Bensalem Entrepreneurial Charter withdrew his application after being question for about three hours by the board and administrators and acknowledging his budget might not be sufficient.

On Jan. 25, the board approved an expansion of the township's only operating charter school, School Lane. Having run a K-8 school since 1998, School Lane now plans to open a high school. The prospective site is the Glenview Corporate Center off of Street Road across from .

The plan is to begin with a ninth-grade class in August, with 10th-through-12th grade-classes starting in each of the following three years. The school will utilize the well-respected International Baccalaureate program.

For each Bensalem student who enrolls in a charter school, the must pay $10,500, the average cost per student in the township. The district also must provide free transportation for any township students who attend charter schools.

Denials of charter school applications can be appealed to the state.

And that is exactly what the founders of the proposed K-12 Bensalem Keystone Charter School are doing, according to Nicholas.

“They've submitted a petition with the thousand signatures they need...and our attorney is reviewing it,” she said Tuesday.

The Keystone school, planned for the Metropolitan Industrial Center in Trevose, was rejected last February amid heavy criticism from the board. Its laundry list of concerns included what it saw as budget deficiencies, failure to demonstrate sustained community support; and lack of educational experience among founders.