No Council action taken on Charter School application

Published in The Islander News May July 17, 2008
CHARLOTTE MILLER.  cmiller@islandernews.com

The Village Council took no action at its July 8 meeting on the Charter School application draft presented to Council member's. The Charter School Application Committee presented the draft to the Village Council for review July 3, just before the long holiday weekend.

A special meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, at Village Hall and it is expected the Council will approve the filing of the appli­cation at that time. The deadline for filing is August 1

In a presentation, the committee, led by Leo Brito, came to the Council with a completed draft of the application, a slide display and a live video feed conference call with consultant Doug Thomas from EdVisions. Application con­sultant Lisa Mulhall was also in attendance.

Brito began by thanking the Council for "putting us to task of tall order." Village Council mem­bers had approved allowing the committee to go forward with the application at an earlier meeting. The committee prepared the 130 plus-page document in only three weeks. They met daily, sometimes twice a day, and were "relentless" in pulling it all together, said Brito.

While committee members stressed they wish only to gain approval to file the application by deadline, several Council mem­bers and people in the audience voiced concerns and debated the merits of a Key Biscayne Charter High School.

Vice Mayor Jorge Mendia voiced concerns over the process itself and emphasized the committee should not be rushing to get a school opened by 2009.

"That's not the way I would do it and I don't think this is the way it should be done," he said, noting he had talked to peo­ple who told him it literally takes 18 months to open a school as opposed to the two-month window if the application is approved.

"We do have the luxury of taking our time. We want the best process, not the quickest process," he said. "Most of us are sold on it, but about 90 percent of the community has not weighed in."

Mendia also questioned how consultants determined the budget and how the number of first-year students was reached.

Council member Steve Leidman said, "You're asking us to approve this by August 1, but there are a lot of areas like location and curriculum where there are not a lot of specifics," he said. "There is a lot [on the application] that looks like boilerplate to me. How do you do all this in the period of time that we have?

"The project is on the one-yard line and we have 99 to go," Leidman said. "The like­lihood of opening up in 2009 is little to none. At this point, whether the application is accepted or rejected is meaningless. We've paid for it. Let's go forward."

Mayor Robert Vernon said opening a Charter School in 2009 is feasible but not practical. He applauded the committee for pulling together the application in three-and a-half weeks, but said many of his concerns lie with wording used in the application, the process being formulated by filing the appli­cation before public hearings and workshops and the specific facility use documented in the application.

"I've always preached the process," said Vernon. "What's different here is that instead of having the process first, we are having it after. The whole point is to have the public hearings and workshops before."

Once all the issues are worked through, "then you can have a Council that can back this 100 percent," he said.

Vernon also said that of the 24 sites the committee had considered, at least 20 were not viable.

"Not because I don't like them," said Vernon, but because of land use restrictions or zoning. "Just because there is an empty space doesn't mean you can put a school there," he said.

"And I'm not 100 percent sure about using the 'existing under-utilized facilities, "referring to the Village-owned complex including the Community Center and Village Hall.

Vernon said he would like to replace the word 'commit' with a less binding term like `contemplate' or 'consider.'

"The word commitment means something to me," he said. "I have a hard time saying I'm committed to something I know nothing about."

Council member Enrique Garcia said he gets the feeling the kids in the inaugural class will be guinea pigs and subject to all the changes and challenges that will come after the school opens. Garcia said while he is all for the school, it is going to be tough to open in 2009.

"I don't want the kids to be guinea pigs and I don't want to create false expecta­tions," he said.

Council member Michael Davey asked, "What is the negative impact if we pass this? Nothing. If we don't put the application in now, we won't know," he said. "We are advancing the ball. Whatever we do, the first kids are going to be the guinea pigs."

Council member Patricia Weinman agreed. "This is the learning," she said "This application is the beginning of a planning process — a generic exercise that gives leeway, a pro-forma based on existing models.

"No parent should count on their children coming to school in 2009," she said. "But I think it's a good idea to file."

Weinman said it will be immediately after filing when the real hard work begins. "We just might learn that we really could open a quality school in 2009. We could lose some­thing by not filing," she said.

Michele Estevez-Hayes, a former member of the K-8 Center Blue Ribbon Committee, told Council members there is no risk in filing the application.

"This is the process," she said. Estevez Hayes recalled there were portable classrooms everywhere when the Key Biscayne K-8 Center opened. "That's what we used. When the school finally opened, the benches were the wrong size and the lab countertops didn't fit," she said. "The facility will not make them smarter or more competitive. I say, build it and they will come."

Longtime Key Biscayne resident Camille Guething said it's very crowded on the Key as it is and there is really no room for a school.

"I'm all for education," she said. "We need education, and we need to be educated on where the money is coming from and we need to be educated on location.

"And finding good teachers is no easy thing either," Guething added.

Thomas, application consultant from EdVisions, speaking via live video feed, said he sees no problems with the budget.

"A reasonable goal for the school to set is 100 students the first year," Thomas said. Thomas used state calculations to arrive at operating figures, acknowledging the figures can change from year to year depending on the state budget.

Thomas said he has helped open 60 charter schools and 50 of them were right where Key Biscayne is now.

"Some of the best schools held classes under park shelters because their facility wasn't ready," he said.

Thomas told Council members the Charter team is a passionate group of people committed to the cause.

"This is a committee that is after the idea of a Charter School on Key Biscayne."

Angel Martin, who has spearheaded the Charter School effort from its inception, emphasized that while there are 3,000 children under the age 18 on Key Biscayne, there are as many questions yet unanswered.

He said merely filing the application is a part of the bureaucratic process that will act as a placeholder in the system.

"We don't know how many children will come," said Martin.

"Did you know how many patients you would have when you opened your practice?" he asked Vice Mayor Mendia, who is a doctor. "No. But you knew they would come and that you would be successful. As it is with all business, we see what the market is and we try to understand."

Before closing, Brito reminded Council members once again the application is an amendable working document that can be amended right up until post-commencement of the school.

"What we need to look at is, does it meet the minimum state requirements for a char­ter school? Does it meet the academic curriculum requirements? Can we accommodate disadvantaged children? Is the Village committed to providing a facility? This is all workable through the process."

Brito stressed once again the application is a placeholder and does not commit to anything.

"At some point we will have to say that a site will be provided. It can be trailers, commercial space, modular units or any temporary facility that we can use for say two to three years until we have a permanent location," he said.

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