Do charter schools need more time?

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Published: December 16, 2008

MCT REGIONAL NEWS

By Jack King

Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

(MCT)

Dec. 16--Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque, wants to delay until 2014 the deadline for charter schools to meet state building standards.

The current law gives charters until July 2010 to be in buildings that are publicly owned, owned by a nonprofit, or owned by a private entity that has agreed to maintain it at no extra cost to the school, said Teresa Brito-Asenap, director of Albuquerque Public Schools' Center for Extended Learning.

''I think everyone recognizes the mandate for 2010 is not only unrealistic, but undoable," said Kizito Wijenje, capital master plan director.

APS, during the past year, has been working with six area charters on a pilot project that was to be a guide for getting all charters in compliance with the law, but 31 other charters chose not to participate.

''I think by 2010 we will have some solution for the six schools, but not for all 37," Wijenje said.

He said the district had hoped the pilot would develop a single model for all schools, but abandoned that idea because each school had individual difficulties with its property.

The six charters in the pilot are Montessori of the Rio Grande, Robert F. Kennedy High School, South Valley Academy, the Native American Community Academy, the Public Academy for Performing Arts and East Mountain High School.

APS Chief Operations Officer Brad Winter told a school board committee recently that efforts are under way to get three of the schools -- Montessori, Robert F. Kennedy and South Valley -- into public buildings through a leasepurchase plan, a move to portable buildings or purchase of adjacent land.

Plans for NACA, PAPA and East Mountain High are still preliminary, he said.

Wijenje said getting all charters into public buildings, by any deadline, would be prohibitively expensive. The cost, he said, would be $150 million to house the schools in portables and $300 million for "real school buildings."

Lisa Grover, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools, said not all APS charters would need the district's help.

Seven already are in public buildings and four are on sites owned by nonprofits. While 26 are on private land, some of those might find ways to comply without requiring help from the district, she said. "Of course, getting into public buildings is highly desirable, since it clarifies the school's right to use public money," she added.

Miera, chairman of the House education committee, said he has warned charter schools since 2005 that they needed to start looking for suitable buildings.

''But, it's human nature to put things off until the deadline comes around," he said.

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