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Dozens of Barack Obama Leadership Academy students chanted “Save our school!” in the rain Wednesday afternoon from the sidewalk in front of the Fisher Building in Detroit’s New Center.
The kids traveled from their school on the east side of Detroit in two yellow buses. They picketed with signs that said, “Our school is more than a building – it’s our community,” “Protect our place to learn,” and “My opinion counts.”
It was a last-ditch effort to convince the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s board before its meeting that evening to authorize another one-year contract for the charter to operate.
But board members had already come to a final decision.
A majority of the board does not plan to authorize a new contract, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a statement released Wednesday morning. Vitti said he agreed with the board’s position, citing concerns about the school’s budget and transparency, as well as its teacher licensure rate. Some board members had previously signaled they would not approve a one-year contract due to the school’s poor academic performance, and the statement cleared up any uncertainty about the board’s position.
Formerly known as Timbuktu Academy, the Obama school offers African-centric education to about 300 students in grades K-5. The school has been open since 1997 and is one of the oldest charters in Michigan.
If the school can’t find a new authorizer, it will be forced to close. The school’s current contract ends June 30.
Cha-Rhonda Edgerson, CEO of the charter school, said the charter is seeking other authorizers in order to stay open, but called the board’s decision “deeply concerning.
“The most important thing is to protect the kids’ continuity of learning,” she said.
Obama charter supporters plead their case
At the beginning of Wednesday’s meeting, board member Ida Short requested to change the agenda to discuss the charter’s future. She also asked to do the same to talk about four district schools set to close at the end of the school year.
Short did not explain the reasoning behind her request. She was absent from the March committee meeting in which the board opted not to advance a one-year contract renewal for the school to a vote.
But all four other present board members rejected Short’s proposal.
That decision did not deter the Obama school’s supporters from making their case later in the meeting.
Monique Philpot, the office manager at the charter school, said during public comment that the school offers resources and wraparound support for families and community members.
“I want to tug on your heartstrings,” she said. “Look at our beautiful students. There’s so much more that we give.”
Philpot was among a group of community members who came to the meeting to support the charter school. But the small conference room where the meeting was held has a capacity of 33 people, and most of the seats were occupied by district staff and contractors.
So Philpot and the others sat outside and waited to enter the conference room to address the board.
Some community members who came to speak in support of the charter complained the district changed the time and room of Wednesday’s committee meeting.
The meeting began at 1:30 p.m. but was originally scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. in a larger meeting room. DPSCD spokesperson Chrystal Wilson said the time was changed on the public board calendar on Monday.
DPSCD changed its recommendation for Barack Obama charter
Despite pleas from the school’s supporters, Detroit school officials have expressed several concerns about the school.
Last month, board members said the charter failed to adequately improve its academic performance after multiple warnings over the years. The majority of the four board members at the March 25 committee meeting chose not to put the contract to a vote.
Administrators in DPSCD’s Charter School Office originally recommended last month the board approve a three-year contract.
Vitti said Wednesday that he had changed the recommendation to a one-year contract to allow the charter time to transition to find a new authorizer.
But in Wednesday’s statement, Vitti said he reexamined the rubric the district used for his recommendation for a one-year renewal after a public outcry at the April board meeting. Supporters were upset the board did not include a vote on the one-year contract renewal on the meeting’s agenda.
After a closer look, Vitti said the charter breached its current contract because it submitted an annual audit late to the district and the state. He added the charter also did not maintain sufficient “transparency reporting” on its website.
“As a result, the reassessed rubric’s scoring would not meet the standard for reauthorization,” he said.
The superintendent said he also supported the board’s decision because the charter has an unsustainable budget and only 25% of its teachers are certified. The rest are either working as daily substitute teachers, or working with a permit issued to the school from the Michigan Department of Education while they work to complete certification, he said.
Bernard Parker, co-founder of the school, said the board’s decision will essentially force the school to shutter. Without a new contract from DPSCD, he said, the charter “will close our doors and be another blighted building in the community” on June 30, “and 300 students will have to seek other schools.”
But Vitti has said at multiple meetings that DPSCD’s decision to not reauthorize the charter does not close the school. The charter may seek other authorizers to continue operations, he said.
Edgerson said the charter has reached out to 11 other authorizers to seek a new contract. Nine said it was not possible to move forward with a contract by the end of June, she said.
Vitti countered that it’s possible for charter schools and authorizers to reach a contract within as few as 30 days. But he also acknowledged the district needed to be more transparent with charters.
“We have to do a better job in the future of directly communicating back to the charters and really explaining how we are evaluating you,” he said.
Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.