Utah ed board says no to Traverse school

The State Board of Education has pulled the plug on the establishment of a new charter school on Traverse Mountain — at least for this year.

Last month the State Charter Board gave American Preparatory Academy, a K-9 charter in Draper, the green light to expand into another campus in the rapidly growing Traverse Mountain development.

But the state school board nixed the project Friday, and the school's leaders don't yet know what their next move will be.

"The idea that successful charter schools should be able to expand within their existing charter is sound policy, good for the state and we will continue to approach it on that basis," said Howard Headlee, chairman of APA's board.

Previously school leaders had called the opportunity a major coup since the developers agreed to cover startup costs for the facility and provide desks, chairs and supplies at highly subsidized rates.

The catch was the school would have to be built and ready for operation in four months.

Plus, it would slightly water down the budget for other charter schools since money was allocated for schools based on projected number of charter students earlier this year.

State board members were chiefly concerned about putting a school together in a few months.

They also questioned if the school could classify the move as an "expansion" when it is a new school in a different location.

"We have approved extensions before, but it has been an extension at the school — plus timeline in putting a whole new school together is a concern," state board member Mark Cluff said. "If any school could do it it's probably this one, but it's an inappropriate amount of time."

Brian Allen, a state charter board member who also crafted charter legislation in the late '90s, said the partnership between the APA and developer would meet part of the vision of what charter schools were meant to be.

And because APA is one of the most successful charters in the state, charter board leaders felt it was a sufficiently safe bet.

"Here's a situation where we can avoid huge startup costs and it seems to be a pretty reasonable request in that respect," Allen said.

But school board members said along with the timeline, it is a stretch to approve an expansion on an entirely new school — a move that has never been made in the state's charter history.