Cambridge schools aim at rival

In an unusual move, the Cambridge public school system has sent parents a letter directly challenging a new charter school in the city, questioning its academics and warning that students who attend the charter won't be able to join sports and clubs at other public schools.

The letter was mailed Monday to the families of about 4,000 students in Cambridge, as the debate over expanding charter schools is intensifying statewide.

The letter also escalates a battle between the Cambridge school system and a former principal who founded the Community Charter School of Cambridge, which is to open in September. The former principal established the secondary school as an alternative to the campus she used to lead: Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the city's troubled high school, which was put on academic probation in 2003 for various reasons, including low test scores.

Signed by the school system's Office of Public Information, the letter highlighted the differences between the city's secondary schools and the charter school. School system spokesmen criticized the charter school, saying it doesn't yet have a location. Rindge and Latin students, the letter said, can take French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, and Chinese, but the charter school "only offers Spanish as a foreign language."

Charter school advocates said it is uncommon for public schools to pick on a single charter school.

"Mostly school districts will send a letter touting their successes and their advantages, and that seems like a reasonable thing to do," said Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter School Association. "When they write a letter that seems to bash a charter school that hasn't even opened yet, that's unfortunate."

Cambridge school officials say the letter is a natural progression in the testy relationship between public and charter schools. The charter schools lobbied state lawmakers to let them compete with other public schools; now the public school systems are rising to the competition.

"The bottom line is we're not afraid to compete," said Nancy Walser, a member of the Cambridge School Committee. "It's good to get the word out there and let parents choose."

Thomas Fowler-Finn, superintendent of the Cambridge public schools, showed the School Committee a draft of the letter before it was sent. He did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The charter school will have a location by fall, its founders say. The school, founded by former Cambridge high school teachers as well as the former administrator, plans to focus on liberal arts and technology, hoping to forge close ties with Harvard University and MIT in a more intimate setting than the 1,800-student Rindge and Latin School. It would serve just 180 students to start, in grades 7-9, and eventually expand to grades 7-12.

"We expected opposition from School Department personnel; we got it," said Robert Riordan, a former Rindge and Latin teacher who is a founder of the charter school.

Paula Evans, who was principal at Rindge and Latin until 2001, said the school district could allow students to use public school facilities. The charter school plans to have athletic programs in which students would compete with their counterparts in other charter schools.

"We would like to work with them," Evans said of the school system.

Rindge and Latin was put on probation in 2003 after a private school accrediting agency found the school's course offerings, funding for guidance, and athletic facilities, among other things, to be lacking.

School officials say they have fixed the vast majority of the problems and expect the probation to be lifted this year.

The school system's letter read in part like a brochure for a private school. It made note of Rindge and Latin's large library, biotechnology lab, drama program, and proximity to tennis courts and a swimming pool. It pointed out that Rindge and Latin graduates have gone to Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and Stanford and touted the school's award-winning robotics and biotechnology programs.

School district officials say it's important for public schools to point out their advantages, especially since the bulk of money for charter schools is taken directly from the school district's budget.

The letter questioned the academic performance of charter schools and said that during an open house, charter school officialssaid it had no plans for specific MCAS help during the school day or the summer, though it might offer after-school tutoring.

"That's bizarre," Emma Stellman, the charter school's founding associate principal, said of the letter's charge. "We have a small school that is so tailored to individual students we will be able to know at the beginning of the school year who needs what. Students who need MCAS help will absolutely get it."

Though charter schools in other cities, such as Boston, generally outperform regular public schools on state tests, in Cambridge, the Banneker charter school lags behind other public schools.

The Legislature plans to consider a bill that would let the experimental, independently run schools expand in some of the poorest and lowest-performing school districts in Massachusetts, including Cambridge.