Sunrise charter school had warning signs before teachers were fired, resigned | News – Home
This article about Paramount Charter School in Broward came out about a week ago, and seemed to point out some serious problems at the charter school. Yet, as the below quote sets out, once again, a district school board member is saying that there is nothing that can be done, regulation is too weak. I hope that this board member talks to the district legal counsel, because this understanding of the law is incorrect. While a charter school may only be terminated immediately for a health, safety, welfare problem, (not sure that is not present based on the reporting), and charter performance is a factor to be considered (shocked if all the teacher turnover has not hurt performance) a charter school may be terminated for material violations of the charter contract with a 90 day notice of termination, and of course, the threat of termination can often be used by a district to get charter contract compliance short of termination. Having read Broward charter contracts in the past, the reporting, if true, seems to flag numerous charter contract problems. So, the School District may chose not to act, they get to make that choice, but school board members should not be allowed to loosely say that they have no means to address the problems.
Broward County school board member Laurie Rich Levinson voiced frustration about the situation at the school, saying the board has received complaints and been to the school, which she said has had three principals already this year. But she said that because of a lack of regulation coming from Tallahassee, there is little the board can do about the problems. She said without a record of performance failures, which can take two years to establish, the school board’s hands are tied unless there is a health or safety risk.
Source: Sunrise charter school had warning signs before teachers were fired, resigned | News – Home