Charter parents say they're left out

However, last week the State Charter School Board approved Summit leaders' request to be reauthorized under the charter board, thus taking compliance issues out of Jordan's hands. The conversion awaits approval from the state school board Sept. 2.

Summit director CherryLee Morgan said school leaders sought reauthorization with the charter board because they were getting all of their training from the state anyway. Plus, last fall, the school received a letter from Jordan encouraging them to seek reauthorization through the state.

But David Moss, charter board chairman, said the approval was provisional and Summit has a year to fix areas the charter board finds out of line. He said they will looking closely at Jordan's recommendations and identify which issues need to be fixed in the immediate future.

"We will be holding their feet to the fire to make sure they fix these things but at the same time we want to allow them to move forward in the areas they are succeeding," said Moss.

Reese and other Summit parents say they are OK with the state working to fix compliance problems, but it won't fix issues in governance.

Under the new charter, submitted to the state by Summit leaders, the school would only have one governing board — the board of trustees — that would consist of the founders and a few appointed members.

"There's a certain qualified training that board members need to have to help the school move forward successfully," said Morgan. "The (founders) already have that training."

State Charter Director John Broberg said there is a chance the charter board could organize the school's governance so that a few elected members would be on the board, but it is too early to say.

And parents are skeptical.

"This is just going to be more of the same with parents being left in the dark," Reese said. "It's nice the (charter board) will be monitoring things but given the nature of the charter it will be back to business as usual."

Summit parent Dianna White said parents are lobbying state board members to reject the charter board's recommendation, thus keeping the school a district charter that must meet Jordan's recommendations.

"This is a great charter — there are feelings and rumors out there but the bottom line is we are trying to save a good school but that's not going to happen overnight," Broberg said.

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