Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com. By COLIN M. STEWART ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer The Hawaii Board of Education cleared the way Tuesday for the Laupahoehoe charter school to open its doors in July. The news came in a 10-page
By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The Hawaii Board of Education cleared the way Tuesday for the Laupahoehoe charter school to open its doors in July.
The news came in a 10-page decision issued after board members took a week to make up their minds concerning a related pair of appeals by Laupahoehoe Community Public Charter School’s interim board.
In their decision, BOE members reversed the charter school’s oversight body, the Charter School Review Panel, which had denied the charter school’s decision to hold elections for a permanent Local School Board no later than Sept. 30, 2012 — after the school year had begun. The review panel instead had ordered the school to hold elections no later than Nov. 21, 2011, if it was to open in July 2012.
The BOE also instructed the review panel’s members to “use their best efforts to cooperate” with the charter school “in the process of opening the charter school for the 2012-13 school year,” the decision reads.
In a Tuesday afternoon phone interview, the Board of Education’s Big Island member, Brian DeLima, said that the review panel had erred in rejecting Laupahoehoe’s change to the election deadline.
“The reference to when the election would occur should have been recognized by the (review panel) as a minor amendment, and they should have allowed them to make the amendment,” he said.
DeLima said he hoped that the BOE’s decision would put to rest any concerns about the school within the Laupahoehoe community.
“We’re concerned that the school opens up as scheduled, in the best interest of the students,” he said.
He added that, had the disagreement between the school and its oversight body dragged out any longer, the school’s federal grant could have been jeopardized.
“You don’t get a competitive grant without substance in your application, without quality people behind the application,” DeLima said. “If there was any further delay in this school year, it could have lost over $200,000, which was going to be used to support the charter school for its first year. That would have been a great loss to the community and those people who are interested in quality education.”
In a press release issued Tuesday afternoon, Laupahoehoe charter interim board President Niki Barton-Hubbard expressed gratitude for the BOE’s decision.
“We thank the BOE for its strong support for charter school students and for educational reform by overturning the (review panel’s) misguided directives,” she was quoted as saying. “The (interim board) looks forward to working with the school and community to open a great school in July 2012.”
Meanwhile, opponents of Laupahoehoe’s conversion to a charter school derided the BOE’s decision.
“My response to it is, there’s a reason why Hawaii is 50th among all the states in terms of quality of education,” said Bob Beekman, head representative of the Laupahoehoe High and Elementary School Chapter of the Hawaii State Teachers Association.
Beekman also said he was considering “action in court” in response to the BOE’s ruling, adding that the decision could be ruinous for the community.
“I think this is absolutely incredibly bad for the children of Laupahoehoe,” he said. “There will be many families that simply pull their kids out, and because of that, the school will fail.”
While the conversion of Laupahoehoe’s elementary and high school was initially met with overwhelming approval in a community-wide vote, it has since come under fire from a number of faculty, staff and parents. People opposed to the charter school have threatened to take over its Local School Board once the elections are held in an attempt to return the charter to the state and bring themselves back under the direct control of the state Department of Education. They claim the interim board has delayed holding the elections to prevent such a tactic.
In its Tuesday decision, however, the BOE sided with Laupahoehoe’s interim board, saying that its members had no choice but to push back elections until after the students, parents, staff and faculty at the school had been identified following the start to the academic year.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
