Neshaminy School Board Fires Back At School Lane Charter School

Following the Neshaminy School Board voting to rescind School Lane Charter School's charter this week, But according to the school board SLCS officials are misleading the public with false information.

In a press release issued today by the school board, board President Ritchie Webb displayed a copy of a June 28, 2011 letter from SLCS’s attorney confirming that School Lane Charter School “is willing to negotiate with the Neshaminy School District regarding the lease and/or purchase of the Eisenhower Elementary School as a potential site for the charter school,” refuting the charter school's claim that the school board changed the agreement outside of the public view.

Webb said that page nine of the transcripts from a July 19 public hearing and vote on the charter application "very clearly states that both parties would enter into a Lease Agreement for use of the Eisenhower facility."

“I am furious that School Lane would accuse this board of hiding anything from the public when we have shown unprecedented transparency in all of our dealings,” Webb said in the release.

According to the press release, the school district allowed School Lane Charter School a “walk-through” of the building and School Lane officials said that they were going to obtain an appraisal report on the property. To date, School Lane has not shared its appraisal with the District and denies even having one. Board member William O’Connor labeled SLSC’s behavior as “suspicious” and questioned the charter school's actions.

“Why would they go through the effort of a walk-through and say they would get an appraisal, and then not get one?” O’Connor asked in the release, adding that the charter school went "many weeks without any further action on the Eisenhower building," and with no advance warning notified Neshaminy officials October 21 that they were no longer interested in the facility.

“School Lane has been rather vague about securing a location since the beginning of its application, and they’ve done very little to convince me they really have a site available for a charter school in Neshaminy,” Webb said. O’Connor added, “I feel like something else is going on here, and SLCS just isn’t telling us.”

Addressing SLCS’s complaint that Neshaminy had not evicted its current tenant in the Eisenhower facility, Webb asked, “Why on Earth would we kick out a tenant who is paying us good money when School Lane hasn’t even made us an offer on the building?”

According to both Webb and O'Connor, prior to Eisenhower, School Lane's top choice for a location was a building in the middle of a parking lot, which they stated was hardly a suitable location for an elementary school.

Webb summarized his frustrations with School Lane by saying, “I know that charter schools are all the rage these days, but it doesn’t mean we don’t do our due diligence and just rubber stamp their application. We must always act with the good of our students as our number one priority.”

Webb noted that School Lane can reapply for a charter school in Neshaminy.

“We’ve already demonstrated that we are willing to overlook their lower PSSA scores in order to bring school choice into our district,” Webb said in the release.