State board wonders if Alpine charter school violated bylaws

State education officials are wondering whether action by Mountainville Academy charter school in Alpine went against the school's bylaws.

Mountainville dismissed three sixth-grade teachers last Friday and announced the sixth-grade would merge into the middle school. Parents are angry the school made the decision without their input.

Some members of the Utah State Board of Education's Law and Policy Committee discussed on Tuesday whether the action required a change to the school's charter.

State education attorney Carol Lear said it's a gray area. Education officials would have to look at the language of the charter.

However, the school's full bylaws and charter are not available to the public right now. State Charter School Board President Marlies Burns, who has access to the data, is at a conference in Washington D.C.

Brian Allen, State Charter School Board President, said he has read segments of Mountainville's bylaws and charter. He said he believes the school was well within its right to dismiss the sixth-grade staff and transition students to the middle school.

"There is nothing in the charter or bylaws that prohibits it," Allen said, adding it's not uncommon for a charter school director to make such decisions.

But Allen said he doesn't approve with the school keeping parents in the dark over the decision. "One of the fundamental foundational principles of charter schools is there is a lot of parental involvement," he said.

Mountainville director Michelle Griner and the school's board president Mac Sims did not return phone calls Tuesday.

State board member Richard Sadler said charter schools are education's new unexplored territory. "We have had this system in place but we continue to look at and focus and reinvent what we're doing so that the process is working best," Sadler said.

Sadler added, however, many parents don't appreciate their child "being an experiment."

State board member Debra Roberts said the state board is "at a crossroads with charter schools in terms of setting up the right processes so we maintain the integrity of the programs, the integrity of the charters."

Mountainville's sixth-grade is to be in the middle school starting Jan. 5. In the meantime, the sixth-graders will have substitute teachers. "How can that be OK?" Lear said. "You can't just get rid of a grade and say 'Oh well.'"

Mountainville officials say the action is to economize and strengthen academics.

The school has discovered it has a $300,000 deficit in its 2007-08 budget. Further, the 2008-09 budget has not taken into account $250,000 in additional expenses, according to a memo from the school to parents.

Lear said she found that "disturbing."

Mountainville's charter is approved for 675 students. The school's current enrollment count is 660, according to Allen.

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