Teachers union rips outreach to charters
The Boston Teachers Union is accusing city and school leaders of “meeting secretly’’ last week to offer charter school officials the chance to lease city schools slated for closure, even before parents and students at those schools knew their fate.
In fliers that its 7,000 members will receive today, the union said charter school leaders “are salivating at the possibility of leasing ‘surplus’ Boston School buildings.’’
Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, said he was taken aback by the meeting.
“I don’t get shocked by much, but I was shocked that they met with these folks prior to a School Committee vote and having meetings with the schools,’’ Stutman said yesterday. “This is an economic decision, and this is a decision based on, I think, trying to give charter schools what they’ve desperately needed, which is space.’’
School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson recommended Thursday that more than a dozen schools close or merge as a way to plug a potential $63 million budget gap in a time of declining enrollment and charter school growth. The system has about 5,600 empty seats throughout the city and the suggested capacity reductions would shrink that number by about one-quarter.
The day before Johnson made her recommendations, her staff met with city and charter school leaders to start strategically planning for the growth of charter schools in Boston, instead of just ignoring them, school officials said. The group discussed about two dozen issues, including transportation and students learning English. Capacity was only a sliver of the discussion, school officials said.
“To say we’re closing schools to give them to charter schools is a flat-out lie,’’ said Michael Goar, the system’s deputy superintendent. “They’re not going away. They’re looking to expand. To ignore them and to criticize is not going to help the situation.’’
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools, created through a contract or charter with the state that authorizes the school and allows it to operate with more autonomy than a traditional campus. Charter schools receive state dollars for each student, money that would otherwise stay within the school system.
This school year, 63 charter schools educate more than 27,000 Massachusetts students, about 20 percent of whom are in Boston.
There are 14 independently run charter schools in Boston, and 16 more that may open during the 2011-12 school year. They are among the 20 statewide finalists scheduled to be discussed at a public hearing on charter schools today at City Hall.
The hearing is one of eight being held throughout Massachusetts. Three district-run charter school applicants are also on the agenda, two of them from Boston public schools.
Stutman said it is coincidental that the union’s campaign starts the same day the public gets to share its thoughts on the 23 charter schools that want to be added to the state’s menu of publicly funded, privately run campuses.
Marc Kenen, head of the Massachusetts Charter School Association, called the union conspiratorial. The union flier highlights an e-mail from Kenen to his “charter friends’’ summarizing last week’s “sit-down with BPS and city.’’
“The whole conspiracy stuff is just union nonsense in a difficult moment regarding school closings,’’ Kenen said last night by phone.
This was the first time city and school leaders have ever met to discuss a possible collaboration, he said, adding that the meeting was “just educators getting together, talking about how you best benefit the kids.’’
At today’s public hearing, he plans to tell members of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that each of the city’s charter school applications is strong. “Or at least I’m going to try,’’ he said. “It’s going to be packed.’’
Akilah Johnson can be reached at ajohnson@globe.com. 
