“The plaintiffs present considerable evidence to the effect that the Board and the Commissioner blatantly ignored and violated state law when granting the GCA charter for political reasons.” (p. 3)
“There is a strong factual showing that the Commissioner, despite his affidavit to the contrary, did not perform his own independent evaluation of the GCA application but, to the contrary, ignored the state regulations and caved into political pressure to recommend the project to a Board eager to approve at least one charter application regardless of its merit.” (p. 7)
“Any student who chooses to attend GCA will be aware of the inherent uncertainty involving the next academic year.” (p. 8)
While he didn’t grant the preliminary injunction as hoped, his reasoning was that the balance of harms – this year – weighed in favor of the recently hired teachers/staff and the landlord who has invested heavily in the site reconstruction (more on this in a bit) — but come January the court would be inclined to revisit such an injunction as the budgetary preparations for the next year are begun and the cascading fiscal effects on our children’s education will begin to be realized.
The strongest and best news is that we will have our day in court to argue the merits of this case which are not, as some would like to paint them, simply an argument for or against charter schools — but rather a case about whether government officials are permitted to violate their own regulations and statutes to pursue a political agenda (See Reville email in past posts) — any school that was qualified and properly vetted would certainly not be as Reville suggested, “a tough but necessary pill to swallow.”
See also the GDT story:
http://www.gloucestertimes.com…
As for the facilities: The school was slated to open on Aug. 31, but because they still do not have a facility ready and are unable to receive their fluctuating number of students, they are hoping the DESE gives them yet more slack allowing them to open at least a week later — just how much rope does a group who should never have been allowed to move forward get?
http://www.gloucestertimes.com…
I’m posting GDT stories because the Globe continues in its obsequious efforts to paint every misstep by charter proponents as a tactical achievement…. at some point their inner Edward R. Murrow is going to awaken and shame them into more objective – or at least balanced – coverage…
http://www.boston.com/news/loc…
They were one of the “moderate allies” Reville was trying to court when he told Chester to (illegally) push the school through. No big surprise their coverage makes the fact that the judge upheld the finding that the charter was illegally awarded out to be some kind of victory for the charter school.
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p>The judge said basically the same thing that the Inspector General said in February. That there was a substantive case the charter was illegally granted for political reasons.
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p>Commissioner Chester has to be sweating. He’s on the record saying he conducted an independent evaluation of the school when discovery has shown no such investigation occurred.
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p>It’s going to look very bad for him and his boss and his boss’ boss when this goes to trial.
This charter was born of a spat between a group of well-off parents at one elementary school and the superintendent of schools at the time, whom they considered an autocratic villain with a brand new school committee and not enough ire against him on the part of the rest of the city. Their response? A charter school of their very own, by God! There has never been true educational “need” in this community for the kind of expensive drain of funds this charter means for the remaining district schools, already impoverished beyond all reason. Someone with political connections, who knew the charter movement was ripe for the intersecting of motive, opportunity, and timing, pounced–and pretty soon we had a hotly debated application process underway. That process, corrupt at every level, manipulated at every turn by Mass. education officials as if we were rubes in a backwater without a prayer of fighting back, has finally found, in Judge Welch, the first resonance of reason and justice since the entire escapade began in late summer, 2008. But I am still angry that any of it happened, and that includes under the watchful eye of our Governor, who pleaded helplessness in the fray, powerless before his Commissioner and Secretary of Education to intervene in any meaningful way. It stinks from the top down, bottom up, and has been a lesson for all of us in how things really work in the highest echelons of the DESE/BESE in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: not for children. Not for children, at all.
It pains me deeply as a progressive Democrat who supported, campaigned and endorsed Deval Patrick for Governor last election that the Gloucester Charter School issue has become such a sad and potent emblem for his education policy and his inability to stand firmly on the side of true public education initiatives.
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p>To my face he said “Chapter 70 is broken and we have to fix it.” Not a damn thing has been done.
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p>He said he wouldn’t lift the charter cap until that funding formula was fixed. Well the cap got lifted but the funding inequity remains.
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p>His own Secretary of Education and the Commissioner of Education conspired to approve a NON-recommended application in order to offer some token to the pro-charter lobby and we get the absurdity of the Gloucester Charter School Fiasco on our doorstep, threatening our schools and dividing our community.
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p>The parents of Gloucester public school children are not willing to stand idly by while the Governor allows our schools, and our children’s education to be sacrificed for the sake of political expediency which is why we’ve chosen to fight this fight.
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p>What now for the Charter?:
http://www.gloucestertimes.com…
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p>Editorial: State ed chief must nix school charter after judge’s ruling:
http://www.gloucestertimes.com…
I oppose most of Patrick’s educational “plan,” but it pales in comparison to the goals of Obama. If Patrick had started with some experience, I think things would have gone differently in his first four years.
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p>His educational policy still would have tilted toward charters and educational “entrepreneurs” because they are the hobby-horses of the the Boston-oriented educational policy crowd and those are the folks he has to play with.
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p>I decided to support Patrick–after saying I wouldn’t–because I think he’s starting to understand the political game on Beacon Hill. He’ll have less of a problem reconciling ideals with reality the second time around.
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p>
this year, and maybe give them a fresh look in 2014 to see if they have learned how to make decisions based on what they believe is right or if they are still letting fear of being called names be the most important factor.
Don’t pass it up. Jill Stein is standing up to the onslaught, standing up for what’s right.
Is the full text of the judge’s learned opinion online?
Enough is enough. There’s one candidate who’s standing up for the PEOPLE of the Commonwealth, as opposed to the corporations who are doing or would like to do business here.
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p>Like so many other facets of our system of government, public education is at a crisis point. Dr. Jill Stein is the only candidate who is immune to the influence-peddling of for-profit corporations because she’s the only one refusing their campaign cash.
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p>Read her position on education here.
by being unelectable.
but that’s cute.
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p>If the people of this state stood up for higher standards for their elected officials, she’d blow those 3 dudes out of the water. As it stands, she brings a completely unique and outside-the-box perspective to the table and is far more inspiring than the tired business-as-usual trio.
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p>Yes, she’s handicapped herself by working outside of the system. She’d make a much more capable governor than Cahill but because he built up a campaign warchest as our Treasurer, the media takes him seriously and not her. But there a whole bunch of different openings for her and the people of Massachusetts and the nation are sick of our broken system. The unraveling of the next 2 months combined with her exceptional debate performances, an odd 4-way race, and her being the only woman, the only fresh new voice, and the only one speaking truth to power… means all bets are off. That’s the lesson from the Scott Brown trampling of Martha Coakley. And while she’s got a bigger hill to climb than Brown in a lot of ways, it could be as simple as inspired voters coming out in droves to throw the bums out and sweep in a clean, green health-advocating machine… while everyone else stays home.
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p>Brown had two things Stein doesn’t: party infrastructure and money.
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p>And when was the last election that inspired voters came out in droves to vote for a third party candidate?
can be read here.
Still awaiting a decision by the DESE on the “readiness” of this charter to open for the school year, despite already having pushed its own opening day to Sept 7th and being in total disarray at the building site.
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p>If the DESE/Mitchell Chester proceed to grant approval as if there are no issues–as if the GCACS is in complete compliance with guidelines set up for all charters, not just this one, as spelled out in state regulations–even in the face of all this negative publicity of the corrupt process thus far, we will know Chester et al. still feel untouchable.
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p>We expect the same rubber stamp that has enabled this boondoggle to proceed from its contrived start, but this time, with the eyes of the Commonwealth opened and focused for the moment (they should be out on stalks), we are wondering how it will fly.
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p>Those of you anxious to re-elect Patrick ought to be on this issue very attentively, double-checking every crossed T and dotted i. You have lost many supporters in what has been a bastion of Democratic support in Gloucester already over this fiasco.
being pissed or not voting for the governor. His administration blew it with you folks.
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p>From a political point of view, however, he had to keep Chester and Reville in there, at least until the election. He’d lose more votes for jettisoning them.
this is small potatoes. Nobody’s gonna care except Gloucester.
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p>Substantially, ethically … it sucks. If Chester lied and shredded documents, as IG Sullivan has stated, he should be gone, yesterday, no hanging around for whatever reason. That’s assuming he did it of his own volition.
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p>Bleah.
It is not “small potatoes” when you consider the precedent this decision will set for the pushing of other charters across the Commonwealth and the country. Charters are pushed with hostility and bullying tactics wherever they go. Divide and conquer is their M.O. And it is not simply that Chester/Reville concocted a scheme to push this unqualified charter application through; they have also looked the other way at many crossroads of failure to comply ever since. On top of that, Patrick, claiming helplessness before laws and regulations that seem to be elastic for Chester but far too inviolable for his boss, failed to rescind despite being shown the evidence of wrongdoing at several junctures. The “do it or else” quality of this entire enterprise has a stench that should reach Duncan and the silly agenda he is pushing nationwide–which is not the same, in the opinion of a growing number of us, as improving public schools. The Globe is wrong on this, the President is wrong on this, and Republicans, whose “schools need competition” values they are endorsing so pig-headedly, will reap the benefits. Those of us who used to say “we need to protect the schools from Republicans” at election time have been told, essentially, to get over it and join the program. Well, that’s fine “politically.” But some of us are still fighting for the kids who’ve been thrown under the bus with these policies.
and Reville. (I didn’t know about the paper-shredding, etc.). I saw him and Reville speak out here at a Hampshire & Franklin County conference that was organized by Stan Rosenberg.
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p>Chester spent most of the education forum fidgeting, spinning something–his eyeglasses case or Blackberry– around and around. Reville came across as abstracted.
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p>The problem with replacing them will be finding someone worthwhile in Massachusetts education circles. Education policy is determined by a policy class that is dominated by business-oriented groups, “philanthropic “organizations like the Boston Foundation, and Globe editorial page. They are in bed with (each other and) the educational entrepreneur community.
Well, here’s a surprise. The DESE/Chester have given the “green light” to the Charter that all systems are go–all 96 points on the checklist check out! Well, except for the “site,” and the fact that the opening has to be pushed to Sept. 13th because the modulars put in place to suffice as classrooms until the mid-November completion of the project are not up to code. Except for that, and the corruption attending the entire process to this point, and the utterly subjective interpretation of those 96 points, which are not made public because, well, nothing about this process has been made public; only pronouncements, after the fact, a la the court of Henry VII. Here’s a great idea: a photo shoot with the governor, tomorrow, at the dug up, half-constructed, partially renovated former medical building at the Industrial Park where this innovative new charter school is situated, near the major power lines and cement surroundings and bleak, industrial views. We are left to wonder (well, not literally of course; we have known the answer for a while here in Gloucester) if Deval Patrick has decided Gloucester is not worth the intervention, or if Mitchell Chester still has the upper hand in the relationship, or if the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has made its bed with Arne Duncan, got its prize duly delivered, and cannot go back on a promise. In any of these scenarios, Gloucester and the majority of Gloucester’s public school students have been tossed to the garbage heap of political quid pro quo. And many of us have been shown, in graphic detail, how little it matters whether those in power are Democrats.
Anyone that thinks this couldn’t happen in your community has not watched Deval Patrick’s low “give a shit” facor on this issue. He snaps his finger or stomps his foot and this goes away.
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p>DP: FU Gloucester.
Let’s just say Jill Stein has picked up an entire block of voters here who have had to learn the hard way that it does not matter if she splits the vote and Baker gets in; there is no difference for our kids, no difference at all, between having four more corrupt years of Patrick and his Rat Patrol or four new ones of some Republican anti-public-services administration. Patrick has achieved what few other Democrats might have achieved to this degree: revulsion that does not turn to apathy. It goes to the voting booth.
Tonight the GCA board voted to extend their opening until Sept. 13th (the rest of the district starts Tuesday) because they have a huge mess to sort out getting their temporary facilities up to MA code before they can get the stop work order on their installation lifted. The DESE still needs to approve this extension, which based on every other bye, extension, waiver, nod, wink and shortcut they’ve been given to date ought to be rubber-stamped by the rise of the sun tomorrow…. I’m not sure why they bother with the formality of making the DESE approve their extension… by now they’ve been given total carte blanche to do as they please it seems superfluous…. Of course since this impacts the bussing to their industrial park location, which the district picks up, this will add additional expense to our schools because of their poor organization. Attention Legislators…. get your thumbs out and start looking at this whole funding inequity. Seriously…
This letter appeared in today’s paper.
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p>My response, which I hope they will run tomorrow or Monday:
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p>To the Editor:
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p>In his letter to the editor on August 27th (“Stopping Charter Will Rob Schools of Needed Innovation”), Peter Svahn should have disclosed the fact that he has a financial interest in the creation of charter schools through his association with Charter Fs Corporation.
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p>That said, he does raise some interesting points. In response, I would ask:
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p>If, as he claims, the only source of real educational innovation these days is charter schools, why hasn’t one opened in the Manchester Essex district?
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p>If schools in the districts adjacent to Gloucester are “better”, what makes them “better” and why can’t what makes them “better” be replicated in Gloucester without opening a new school?
“”The probation department has become a rogue agency with a complete lack of transparency, and oversight,” Patrick said in a statement to the Globe.” –
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p>Gosh… for a second there I thought he was referring to the Dept. of Education… but then that would have been redundant….
So convinced is Mitchell Chester that the GCACS in Gloucester is good to go that he approved their opening despite STILL not having an actual school facility to put their students…. despite the fact that as of today they STILL don’t have a permit to correct the modular units to make them compliant with MA standards and that the new deadline for opening is September 13th…. The modulars that were brought in were NOT compliant with state standards and as a result require retrofitting to meet code – this work must be completed PRIOR to the lifting of a stop work order that would allow the final installation of said non-compliant units on the grounds of the construction site of the new school… located in an industrial park.
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p>So given that the modulars aren’t up to code and must be prior to allowing the final installation work, it appears that the Sept. 13th deadline is yet another illusion in this magical mystical venture. Just how long will the Commissioner allow this farce to continue? Their 19-month window closes on September 24th unless of course the Commissioner chooses to extend that deadline as well.
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p>Based on the Dr. Seussian columns of cracked cinder blocks on which these modular units are resting I would bet that Earl may have something to say about whether this school ever opens.