Parents gain voice at charter school

Parents at a Draper charter school will have a little more say in what goes on at their school after the State Charter Board reinstated parental voices in the governance of the school.

On Thursday the board voted to require that Summit Academy's board of trustees have two elected members along with three appointed members and founders.

Summit Academy, a K-6 school chartered by Jordan School District, opened last year and was run by two governing boards — the founding members and an elected school board.

However, at the end of the school year last spring the founding members dissolved the elected school board, leaving only the founding members at the helm.

After an investigation, Jordan School District found that Summit leaders were out of compliance on a number of issues, including governance, and ordered that they reinstate an elected board.

But in August, the school applied for reauthorization under the State Charter School Board. And under the new charter they submitted to the state they would not have an elected board, only a board of trustees that would consist of two founding members and a few appointed members.

Last month, the state gave conditional approval to Summit's new charter but required they make a number of changes — taking many of Jordan's recommendations into consideration.

Governance was the big issue. Many Summit parents were unhappy with the idea of the founders solely running the school. They were unhappy about the way the founders ran the school last year, claiming there was a lack of communication and that throughout the year parents knew little about what was going on and were not kept in the loop about meetings, decisions and activities.

During the past two months a number of parents contacted charter board members asking that they require Summit founders to reinstate an elected school board.

Charter board members collectively felt that it was a good idea to have an elected voice in a school's governance, but some questioned whether it was appropriate to usurp the founders' power and ability to shape the vision of their school.

"I think we ought to allow some reasonable discretion for founding boards to make changes to their charters and follow their own visions," said Brian Allen, a charter board member. "We should let the people who have the vision determine what is best for that vision as long they are succeeding and there is no malfeasance."