Westminster, Enterprise charters sue Buffalo Public Schools over forced closings

Westminster Community Charter School and Enterprise Charter School filed the lawsuit late Wednesday afternoon in State Supreme Court, asking a judge to issue restraining orders that would keep the two charters open.

The Buffalo School Board voted March 31 to close the two charter schools with nearly 1,000 students because their student proficiency rates in math and English language arts have historically been lower than the districtwide average.

But the schools allege in court papers that the board disregarded a number of state laws and regulations in the months leading up to that vote and even in taking that vote.

Specifically, the schools allege that the school board:

• Failed to hold a hearing by Sept. 30 to solicit public comment about the schools' applications to renew their charters.

• Discussed the fate of the charter schools in executive sessions March 24 and 31, in violation of the state's Open Meetings Law, and did not discuss it in public session.

"Although the BPS Board was permitted to seek legal advice outside of open session, it was legally required to come back into open session once the legal advice had been rendered and substantive deliberations began," Westminster argued in its court filings.

• Used an outdated framework in evaluating the charter schools, rather than using a framework from 2019 that it was required to use.

• Failed to provide oversight to the charter schools, as required by state law.

Board President Sharon Belton Cottman said at a March 3 meeting that she was "shocked to learn" that the board was obligated to provide oversight to the charter schools, according to court papers.

"The board and administration did not know, understand or meet its obligations to Enterprise as its charter school authorizer," the charter school said in court papers.

If either school was not meeting expectations, the board was to direct the schools to develop a corrective plan, but it did not, Enterprise said.

Westminster also said in court papers that the school board decided in 2018 to renew its charter, but then decided in 2021 not to, even though the data showed that students in the charter school performed better in 2021 than in 2018.

“The BPS action involves the arbitrary and unlawful decision of a public school district and its board to close a charter school during an ongoing pandemic,” Westminster's Board of Trustees argued in legal papers.

Eighteen percent of Enterprise students in grades three through eight were considered proficient in English language arts during the 2018-19 school year, while 13% were proficient in math, according to the most recent state data.

At Westminster, 22% of students in grades three through eight were proficient in ELA, while 19% were proficient in math.

As a comparison, 25% of Buffalo Public Schools students in grades three through eight were proficient in ELA, while 19% were proficient in math.

Students at the two charters – 550 at Westminster and 403 at Enterprise – will likely have to enroll in schools that are lower performing than either charter, the charter schools contended, saying that the two schools have better test scores than 25 Buffalo public schools.

The charters have also tried to make the argument that since their last renewal in 2019, they have had little time to prove themselves before the Covid-19 pandemic hit and upended the entire education system.

Enterprise, at 275 Oak St., opened in August 2003, and was touted as the only charter in the state authorized by its local school district.

Westminster, at 24 Westminster Ave., was once part of the city school system before being converted to a charter school in the fall of 2004. The staff at the school, which has long had a partnership with M&T Bank, are still members of the district’s unions.

The city school system has long complained about growing competition from the independently run charters. In this case, it had the unusual opportunity to close down two of them.

The state Board of Regents or the State University of New York would normally make that determination, but Buffalo Public Schools sponsored Enterprise and Westminster in the early days of the charter movement and has the final say on whether they should be closed, unless a judge decides that they do not.