MMEHMPCS trustees, the Barnstable School Superintendent, and the Barnstable School Committee voted to deface Hyannis's Beacon of Hope, but that doesn't mean it’s over.

This is not a post..

It is however the copy of an email to the Massachusetts Department of Education, Charter School Section, that is currently reviewing the Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Public Charter School (MMEHMPCS) renewal application.

It seems Mr. Cahoon, Ms. Grenier, and the MMEHMPCS trustees have been less than truthful with the DOE.

For example the DOE was not informed of the school committee’s strong arm tactics on the school’s charter renewal.

The DOE wanted me to email them my oral complaints. 

It's not too late to comment on the displacement of Hyannis East Elementary School,

but you must email the DOE within the next few days.

If you agree that displacing 276 Hyannis area kids throughout the district to enable affluent/middle class students from Osterville, Cotuit, Centerville, and Marstons Mills, to attend an elitist private/public school,

is racism,

please copy and paste my email, or add your thoughts,
and email it TODAY to;

Ms.Lee  DeLorenzo; (781) 338-3224

charterschools@doe.mass.edu

My email follows;

Dear Ms. Delorenzo;

As you requested this email is written confirmation of our telephone call today concerning the trustee’s decision to move the Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Public Charter School (MMEHMPCS) to the Hyannis East Elementary School Building, seven miles away in a city with 64 square miles.

MMEHMPCS is in the process of its first five-year renewal, and the Department of Education is scheduled to make a decision on the matter later this month.

In its initial charter application MMEHMPCS founders postulated its target enrollment is “gifted and talented” K – 4 students, “a class that is typically overlooked”. 

The initial charter also postulates the school will utilize an accelerated learning program based on the Statewide Enrichment Model (SEM) as the model for creating and sustaining systemic whole-school change under its Horace Mann charter.

Inherent in its application MMEHMPCS trustees adopted the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) developed by Dr. Joseph Renzulli.

The DOE is bound by Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 71: Section 89 (10) that

REQUIRES “a statement of equal educational opportunity which shall state that charter schools shall be open to all students, on a space available basis, and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age, ancestry, athletic performance, special need, or proficiency in the English language, and academic achievement”

This section of the law is antithetical to MMEHMPCS’s charter (gifted and talented in need of an accelerated learning program).

603 CMR 1.00:1.12 postulates; “The decision by the Board to renew a charter shall be based upon the presentation of affirmative evidence regarding the success of the school's academic program; the viability of the school as an organization;

•    And the faithfulness of the school to the terms of its charter.

Please review the student demographics for MMEHMPCS, Hyannis East Elementary School, and the Barnstable School District;

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE...





The laws of probability defy MMEHMPCS enrollment demographics based on the school's lottery-driven enrollment.  The complete lack of minority and low-income students indicate MMEHMPCS's enrollment was not open to all Barnstable students.

MGL Chapter 71; Section 89 also postulates;

“Priority for enrollment in a Horace Mann charter school shall be given first to students actually enrolled in said school on the date that the application is filed with the board of education and to their siblings; second to other students actually enrolled in the public schools of the district where the Horace Mann charter school is to be located and third, to other resident students.”

At the January 27th Barnstable School Committee hearing MMEHMPCS trustees were ordered to approve a move to Hyannis East Elementary School for the fall term,

or the school committee would rescind its support for its charter renewal. 

On Monday, February 2nd MMEHMPCS trustees in a contentious hearing voted unanimously to displace Hyannis Elementary School students.

A school budget shortfall of $6 million to level fund the F/Y10 school budget has forced the closure of three elementary school buildings; Cotuit Elementary School, Osterville Elementary School, and Marstons Mills Elementary School, all middle/affluent villages.

The MMEHMPCS building will be used to educate displaced students from the three affluent villages.

The school closures will cause "severe overcrowding" (See; Barnstable School Committee's Statement of Interest on file with the School Building Authority)




In the past five years the school committee will have closed five elementary schools for the purpose of creating severe overcrowding to strong-arm voters into approving a debt exclusion override to build a new 500-student elementary school.

Because MMEHMPCS will have to amend its charter to change its address, name, and enrollment (from K – 4 to K – 3),

and the charter's conflict with the law in its original charter (gifted and talented),

I ask the Department of Education to treat the renewal application as a new application, awarding enrollment preference to Hyannis East Elementary School students who are;

67%  “low income,”

41% who live in homes where little or no English is spoken.

350% times more than the district's African American students,

250% greater than the Barnstable School District Hispanic students, and

Double the Multi-Race-Non-Hispanic population,

Hyannis East Elementary School is located in Hyannis, where the median income is below the poverty level (U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts Zip Code 02601).

The Massachusetts General Court placed an emphasis on giving first choice to students already enrolled in new Horace Mann Charter Schools.

MOVING HYANNIS EAST STUDENTS IS PROBLEMATIC;

Hyannis West Elementary School’s enrollment demographics are similar to Hyannis East except the school's low-income student population is fifty percent less.

Hyannis West Elementary School is filled to capacity which means should the DOE fail to comply with Massachusetts law and regulations by renewing MMEHMPCS's  charter;

the urban school's enrollment will be sprinkled throughout the remaining four elementary schools, of which only one has an ELL program.

Hyannis East Elementary School is a beacon of hope for the poor and disadvantaged area residents, most of whom don’t own an automobile, or at best one car.

Kids do miss buses, and without transportation five, six, and seven year-olds will get a head start on the art of skipping school.

Transportation-less parents will be unable to participate in parent/teacher meetings.

MMEHMPCS has 66 kids on the waiting list, which leaves little chance for poor Hyannis kids to attend the school as there’ll be 39 slots open that will be filled through a lottery.

Renewing MMEHMPCS’s charter is akin to reestablishing southern white-only racist policies of the fifties.

An entire disadvantaged village will be uprooted solely to provide a means for an elitist public school for middle class/affluent students.

What will work is a Horace Mann Charter School located in Hyannis that targets disadvantage students. 

A DOE renewal of MMEHMPCS's charter will be the beginning of class warfare in Barnstable.


Gary Lopez

37 Gleneagle Drive

Centerville, MA 02632

508 957 2293

This email was also sent to Governor Patrick



 

Comments

[Gary Lopez]

The species, known as Commonwealth Charter Schools, have been determined to be a subspecies of the dinosaur.

Governor Patrick filed a bill that will enable charter schools to feel the pains of the economy along with public school districts that pay the freight.

The Governor has proposed several changes to the charter tuition payment and reimbursement process. If adopted by the Legislature, these changes will simplify the accounting for charter school tuition and will also give sending school districts a more reliable projection of expected costs for budgeting purposes.

There are four elements to the proposed change:

1)Sending districts will only be responsible for the foundation base rate and above foundation spending components of the tuition rate formula.

2) The third component will be paid directly to the charter schools by the state. (In past years, the districts had to account for both this expense and for the offsetting state reimbursement.)

3) Tuition charges to sending districts will be based on the prior year's enrollment and tuition rates. This is analogous to how Chapter 70 operates, with district aid based on the prior year's enrollment.

4) Sending districts will receive two years of transitional reimbursement.

In FY10, districts will receive 60% of the tuition increase from FY08 to FY09, and 40% of the tuition increase from FY07 to FY08.

Charter schools will be paid directly by the state for the difference between last year's tuition and this year's tuition (in effect replacing the old 100% reimbursement program for current year increases).

Last year D/Y was assessed $1,480,010 for charter school tuition, and under the Governor’s formula the amount in F/Y10 for the 132 students attending charter schools will drop to $1,215,980, or an 18% reduction.

Barnstable’s contribution to Sturgis in F/Y09 was $1,073,651, which will drop to $986,410 in F/Y10, an 8% drop for its 92 students.

Sandwich’s F/Y09 charter school assessment of $566,766 will drop to $474,841, a 16% reduction for its 54 charter school students.

Barnstable, D/Y, and Sandwich account for 79% of Sturgis’s enrollment.

The combined assessment for these districts in F/Y09 was $3.2 million.

Can Sturgis survive with a 14% revenue cut?

Sturgis is an excellent school with outstanding past performance records, and I would hate to see it fail.

With the uncertain state of the economy, the school’s trustees need to be prepared for the worse.

Only seven of the fifty-two Horace Mann Charter School slots have been filled; two of which are in Barnstable.

Does that tell you something about Horace Mann schools?

There are 54 Commonwealth Charter Schools.

Last year the Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Public Charter School (MMEHMPCS) incurred an operational deficit of $260,000 despite a maximum enrollment of 474 in a fairly new and smaller building.

In F/Y10 MMEHMPCS will drop to a K – 3 School while losing 20% of its enrollment.

Should the DOE renew its charter, MMEHMPCS will move into a larger, older, and less efficient building.

In F/Y10 from 50% - 70% of MMEHMPCS students are expected to drop out of the school because of health, safety, and transportation factors.

As school choice numbers decline, MMEHMPCS will have to drop its ASP program, which separates the school from all other elementary schools.

It’s not a question of if, but when MMEHMPCS will fail.

Creating more school districts within a single school district is inversely proportionate to the DOE, Governor, and Legislature’s plan to regionalize school districts.

[Gary Lopez]

There have been 660 people who have logged on today.

I don't know how many people emailed the DOE, but I do know there have been a large number of telephone calls to the Charter School division.

We need emails and faxes so the DOE has a record of the complaints.

You can also inform the DOE it is betting on a lame horse as MMEHMPCS will fail within a few years if not in F/Y10, because most folks don't want to send their kids into the town's combat zone.

[capecog.com]

People forget that the proliferation of charter schools came under Governor Weld's administration.

Sen. Henri Rauchenbach led the six Republicans to join a minority of Democrats to expand the number of charter schools from 50 to 125 two years after the first fifty were established as a pilot program.

Charter school expansion carried 20 - 19 and was supposed to be a 50%/50% deal over a five year span starting with 60% - 20% - 10% - 5% - 5% state share, SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION.

After one year the legislature failed to appropriate any money for its share which meant school districts had to pick up the entire cost of charter schools.

Now that the Republicans no longer control the corner office, the state is tossing charter schools to the wolves as a failed experiment; 13 years and school performances are even lower than they were in 1997 despite $1.5 billion more education aid.

Even Mayor Menino gave up on regionalized elementary schools; too much money in the gas tank, and not enough on teachers.

Boston is back to neighborhood schools.

Barnstable is heading where Boston has been.