Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
The Shawano School District will continue to operate its charter school for another two years.
District administrators and Shawano School Board members reached that decision after discussions that were held largely out of public view.
Board members met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the charter school’s future, and then voted unanimously to approve a two-year extension without public deliberation or explanation.
Superintendent Gary Cumberland declined to comment on why the matter was being handled behind closed doors. An attorney for the school district said officials were within their legal rights to exclude the public from discussions regarding the charter school’s future.
Parents earlier Monday had publicly urged board members to support the LEADS Charter School, which began five years ago as an alternative for students in grades pre-kindergarten through second.
Parent Anne Robertson told the board that both her children attended LEADS and both had good experiences with its alternative “inquiry-based” teaching style.
“It was a really great opportunity for my kids to learn in a really different way,” Robertson said. “They were taught to think — and not be scared of it.”
Housed inside Hillcrest Primary School, LEADS has served about 72 students annually. It is overseen by its own governing board and funded through the district’s regular $38 million budget.
With the district’s initial five-year commitment to LEADS scheduled to expire at the end of the current school year, some board members had previously questioned its effectiveness in improving student instruction throughout the district.
Board member Derek Johnson last month requested data showing how students perform in the charter school. That data has not since been presented publicly, and subsequent discussions about the charter school have been moved into closed-door meetings.
The district’s executive board met Jan. 5 without indicating that it would discuss renewal of the charter school. The agenda stated that the board would meet behind closed doors to consider LEADS student data under an exception to the state’s open meetings law that is generally reserved for personnel problems or disciplinary issues.
In a memo to board members later, Cumberland wrote that executive board members voted to recommend renewing LEADS for two years after having “a data-driven presentation” that was “very informational.” He wrote that performance data showed no difference between LEADS students and others in the district.
“The question then,” he wrote, “is what about LEADS is working best that we could use in the regular school setting to help meet the needs of more students.”
Cumberland’s memo said nothing about executive board members considering personnel problems or disciplinary issues associated with the charter school.
For Monday’s school board meeting, the agenda initially indicated that the charter school renewal would be discussed in public. A different agenda distributed later showed that the matter would be considered behind closed doors under an open meetings exception generally reserved for buying real estate or making other investment decisions with “competitive or bargaining” concerns.
The board voted unanimously to close Monday’s meeting to the public for discussion of the charter school issue. Board member Rich Belongia was absent.
FYI
Shawano School Superintendent Gary Cumberland reported that district communication specialist Amanda Korth has resigned, after a management consultant recommended eliminating her position. Cumberland plans to transfer Korth’s duties to other district staff.