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Education officials to discuss fate of Gloucester charter school

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 2, 2009 03:30 PM

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

State education officials will hold a meeting in Gloucester on Nov. 7 to discuss the fate of a controversial charter school that gained approval earlier this year under questionable circumstances.

The two-hour public meeting will start at 1 p.m. at Gloucester City Hall, and will include the mayor, the School Committee, the superintendent, and leaders of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School.

The meeting, convened at the request of Governor Deval Patrick, is part of an effort by state officials to calm a firestorm that was ignited two weeks ago with the publication of an e-mail from the state's education secretary that suggested the Patrick administration may have pushed for the charter school's approval last winter to advance the rest of the governor's education agenda.

Top education officials have subsequently denied that politics played a role in the charter school's approval by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in February.

Patrick has asked the board to put the Gloucester charter school through the approval process again to ensure that residents feel the process was fair, even though that the governor believes that it was.

State education leaders initially frowned upon the idea, arguing state law forbade them from re-opening the approval process.

However, earlier this week, Maura Banta, the state board's chairwoman, and Mitchell Chester, the commissioner of elementary and secondary education, announced they were seeking outside counsel to explore the legal options and also said they were re-examining the school's application for material misrepresentations, based on comments from Gloucester city leaders.

The board can revoke a charter if significant material misrepresentations are found in its application.