Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

The Governor responds to “Chartergate”

By

The timeline and facts:

The Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, Mitchell Chester, received an application to create a new charter school in Gloucester, one of three charter applications that made it to the final review process.

The Commissioner’s staff recommended against all three charter applications.

Secretary of Education Paul Reville and Commissioner Chester discussed all aspects of the various charter proposals and Secretary Reville advocated for approval of the Gloucester charter school.

Commissioner Chester independently evaluated the proposals and brought the Gloucester charter school forward to the Board for a vote.

The Board independently considered the application and approved the Gloucester charter school.

Local representatives and concerned citizens appealed to Commissioner Chester, Secretary Reville and, ultimately, Governor Patrick, raising concerns about the funding impacts on the district and the chartering process itself.

Governor Patrick personally met with a group of concerned citizens and subsequently wrote the Board and Commissioner Chester asking them to reconsider their decision and start the process over.

Following issuance of the letter, Secretary Reville met with charter and community leaders to find common ground.

On Saturday, the Gloucester Times published an email from Secretary Reville, originally sent in February, advocating for an award of the Gloucester charter, which has served to set back recent progress.

Governor Patrick wrote again yesterday asking that the Board and Commissioner of Elementary Education start the process anew so that there is no cloud over the decision and all members of the Gloucester community will be heard on the charter grant.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. Is it even legal for the state to renege on a charter school approval?

    <

    p>Is a contract signed?

    <

    p>I would guess that the Governor had little to do the Gloucester decision, but it’s so typical of the Administration. Signal one way, turn the other, drive off the road.

  2. From today’s worcester telegram:

    <

    p>

    Whatever Mr. Reville intended by his Feb. 5 e-mail, influencing a charter decision on any grounds but the merits of a proposal is improper per se. Moreover, it is not the first time that Mr. Reville has done so. In 2008, as chairman of the BOE, Mr. Reville was instrumental in the rejection of the SABIS International charter school proposal for Brockton. Mr. Reville relied upon a 2005 letter from state education officials that cited SABIS’ Springfield school for special education deficiencies, resulting in the BOE rejecting the Brockton proposal over the favorable recommendation of then acting commissioner Jeffrey Nelhaus.

    However, the deficiencies cited in the letter had been successfully addressed by SABIS two years earlier, in 2003; that same year, ironically, the Rennie Center, an educational think tank headed at the time by none other than Mr. Reville, had cited SABIS’ Springfield school as among the best urban schools in the state for closing achievement gaps between racial groups. The Springfield school, moreover, has since been named among the top 3 percent of high schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Archives