For months, Amber Simpson had assembled many of the pieces needed to open a charter school in the Normandy School District, where the demand for better options had hundreds of families driving their children to higher performing districts last school year.
But then the Missouri Board of Education decided to seize control of the district and potentially change its accreditation status. That could undermine her efforts.
“We’re going to put it on hold,” said Simpson, a certified teacher and board president of the Missouri Charter Public School Association. She’s now looking to open her school in St. Louis.
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It’s been almost two years since a Missouri law took effect allowing charter schools to open in any unaccredited school district across the state. But none have opened in Normandy or Riverview Gardens.
Several potential charter school operators have expressed their interest, including a group of parents and teachers exploring the possibility in Riverview Gardens. But the proposals have not come to fruition.
Presumably, the demand for charter schools in Normandy would be high.
The district lost its accreditation in January 2013. Its performance that school year was the lowest in Missouri. Nearly 1,000 children in Normandy transferred to higher performing schools this past school year under a state law that has drained the district of money, and seemingly done nothing to improve its schools for the 3,000 children still there.
Now, as state education leaders work to remake the troubled district, they are asking area districts to allow existing transfer students to remain in their new schools at lower tuition rates. It’s unclear whether school boards will agree. And it’s just as unclear whether charter schools will play any role within the district over the long term.
“A 300-student school does not solve the systemic problems in Normandy,” said Michael Jones of St. Louis, vice president of the state Board of Education. He said that unless a reform idea can help a broad range of students — and be shown to work when repeated elsewhere — “it will not meet the policy threshold I can consider. Fundamentally, that’s what we’ve got to have.”
On July 1, the district will become the “Normandy Schools Collaborative.” An appointed board will replace the elected one, and it will report to the state. The Missouri Board of Education is scheduled to consider the accreditation status of Normandy at its meeting on June 16 and 17. Because the Normandy collaborative will be considered a brand new district, it most likely will not carry any accreditation classification. New student transfers will come to a halt.
Also as a result, charter schools most likely would have to have backing from the appointed board to open there.
Jones is skeptical that charter schools could be part of any broad solution.
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that operate independently of school districts. They are intended to give parents an alternative to failing urban schools. But in St. Louis, some charter schools have performed even worse than the city school system, though their track record is improving.
“I haven’t been too happy with their performance,” said Rep. Clem Smith, D-St. Louis County, who represents much of the area within the Normandy School District.
Memories of charter failures — such as Paideia Academy and the six Imagine charter schools — are still fresh in his mind, and those of others. The state effectively closed those down in 2010 and 2012 after years of abysmal academic results.
Nevertheless, some parents in Normandy say they’d like charters to be among their choices when trying to decide where to send their children.
Tierra Winston, whose daughter will be a first-grader this fall at Jefferson Elementary School in Normandy, said she’s considered transferring to higher performing schools elsewhere, but doesn’t like the idea of putting her little girl on a bus bound for schools 30 miles away, or having to drive her cross-county each day.
“I would love for her to be close to home,” Winston said. “I would love for her to have other options. Any other elementary school in Normandy isn’t any different than the elementary school she’s in.”
Simpson began working on opening the proposed Vernare Learning in Normandy last fall, after the transfer situation began. It would have started with kindergarten through second grade, and eventually would have grown to include high school, Simpson said. The school wouldn’t have opened until the 2016-17 school year.
Simpson still needed to find a building. She also needed to raise private money. She and her board plan to submit a charter application to the state in September, with intentions of now opening the school in St. Louis.
Doug Thaman, executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association, said attracting quality charter operators to Normandy continues to be tough. Even if the district’s accreditation status does change, state law would allow charter operators to open schools in Normandy under certain conditions. Thaman said he’s not sure if any potential operators would try.
“They aren’t going to consider this until there is some certainty. It keeps changing,” Thaman said. “It’s been such a swirling mess with what’s going to happen to that district.”
