Charter schools are urged to switch

Boston Public Schools officials have begun recruiting charter schools to join the city's public school system, in a concerted effort to expand its portfolio of experimental schools. The move is also aimed at reclaiming the millions of dollars it loses each year when Boston families send their children to charter schools.

Today, 550 teachers and principals in the city's 14 charter schools will begin receiving letters asking them to consider converting their schools, which are under state jurisdiction, to pilot schools, which are autonomous but fall under the Boston public school system. The letters were mailed by the Boston Teachers Union on Saturday.

The letter invited charter school teachers and principals to an April 24 meeting, when school system officials and union members will make their pitch.

''We understand that convincing you to join the BPS may be an uphill battle, but we are willing to try," reads the letter, signed by BTU's president Richard Stutman, Michael Contompasis, the school system's chief operating officer, and Dan French, the head of the pilot schools network.

The invitation was met with skepticism by Marc Kenen, head of the state's charter school association. He scoffed at the notion that educators who chose the flexibility of charters over the rigidity of traditional school systems would consider the invitation.

While some charter school principals said they were intrigued by the idea, they expressed doubt that the school system would allow them to retain the freedoms charter schools enjoy, especially after a new schools superintendent takes over in July.

''They'd be giving up autonomy and flexibility," said Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association. ''And they'd be inheriting the union and the bureaucracy of the school district."

Charter schools were created in a 1993 state law to give parents more choices for schooling their children.

Charter school educators can determine what and how students should be taught, the length of the school day and year, and how to disburse budgets.

Pilot schools, created in 1995 in response to competition from charters, have more autonomy than traditional schools but less than charter schools.

Pilot school educators must negotiate their freedoms with the teachers union and the school system. But unlike in charter schools, those who teach in pilot schools enjoy union pay, benefits, and protection.

Stutman is hoping that the chance to join the union -- which guarantees teachers an annual salary of $42,355 to $81,702 -- will lure charter school teachers into the system.

Each charter school determines its teachers' salaries. The state charter school association was unable to provide information about average pay.

''We don't think teachers in charter schools are as happy as they could be," Stutman said. ''They're not as rewarded."

The school system has 19 pilot schools, which are popular among parents.

In February, after a yearlong standstill, the system reached an agreement with the teachers union to create seven more pilot schools by 2009. Roughly 6,000 of the system's 58,600 students attend the pilot schools. About 4,300 Boston residents attend 14 charter schools.

Meg Campbell, principal of Codman Academy, a charter high school in Dorchester, called the school system's invitation a ''bold move."

''Our hallmark is being open to new ideas," Campbell said. ''Anything is worth exploring and talking about."

Spencer Blasdale, executive director of the Academy of the Pacific Rim in Hyde Park and president of the Massachusetts Charter School Association, said he encourages each Boston charter school to consider joining the school system, but expressed concerns about facilities.

Becoming a Boston pilot school, Blasdale said, could save his school $396,000 a year in rent if Boston Public Schools provided a permanent facility for it. The school is currently housed in an old factory complex.

But the public school system is struggling to find permanent facilities for its existing pilot schools, according to Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant.

Michael Goldstein, founder of the Media and Technology Charter School, said he questions whether charter schools would retain their autonomy.

In a recent pilot school settlement, school system administrators and the union agreed to limit the number of overtime hours teachers can work without pay. Charter schools have no such limitations over how much their teachers work.

Several pilot school principals have said they fear that the agreement between the system's administrators and the union is the first step in an erosion of their autonomy.

''Charter and pilot teachers tend to focus much more on student achievement than on obsession with pay and the contract," Goldstein said. ''Once teachers start looking at the clock, it really erodes their ability to be focused on students."

Instead of charters becoming pilot schools, Goldstein said he hopes that Boston, like New York City and Indianapolis, will hire a superintendent who ''embraces charters and their autonomy rather than trying to curtail them and take them over."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.