Comments about ‘Parents question charter school in Alpine’

I strongly support Charter Schools, and the Open Meetings law. And I support the decision made by Mountainville in tough circumstances.

What I do not support is how the made this decision. They purposefully found a loophole in the law that allowed them to hide. If they are not mature enough to make these tough decisions in the light of day, maybe they should step down from their responsibilities in running this school.

In any case, expect the Open Meetings law to be amended to close this little loophole. As with any law, all it takes is one knucklehead to find the hole and the law gets tighter.

I believe it was one of our Founding Fathers John Adams who said something to the affect that our government was made for a moral people, not not suited for any other kind.

This is an example of what he was getting at. Good people, bad method of making a decision.

Balancing the long term health of a school and the current needs of the students can be a difficult task. Nothing is better than when these tow are running parallel but it is very difficult when they must intersect and difficult choices must be made.

Not knowing the situation in detail it is difficult to know how necessary this change was or what other options may have been created. However, I am shocked that the board and adminstration to not have a better idea or how the students and parents would react. Even taking the same final step in a more careful manner was well within their reach.

This is, unfortunatley, a prime example of the beauracratic and often impersonal attitude that has overrun our public schools (yes, even charters). Better understanding of the emotional weight behind this decision should be within the skill set of a board making such a decision. If it is not, families involved with the school should have serious questions about what priority the school places on the value of their children's well being compared to that of the institution, their individul reputations, or even personal agendas (possibly vendetta's?) for the school.

A public school would have been hung out to dry by the USOE for such action. Yeah, Yeah, Charter Schools are considered public schools. But public schools can't overspend or hold secret meetings.

Some of these charter schools are very scary. This may jst be the tip of the iceberg.

I hope everyone realizes that the press has captured about every negative aspect of what has gone and largely ignored the obvious positive support the board has from many parents.

I was at the ENTIRE 3 1/2 long meeting last night. It was obvious that for some parents there last night ABSOLUTELY no answer/explanation was satisfactory to them.

This board works for free, has children directly affected and has no motivation to do anything detrimental to the school. Too many parents act like this board is out to destroy the school. Anyone at the meeting could see that is simply not the case.

Did the press mention that virtually NONE of the parents have attended the open board meetings that have been held? Did they mention that less than half the parents bothered to vote on amended bylaw proposals that were sent out over and over by the board?

Whiny parents stand and complain but do not bother to be involved except to complain. That is easy.

The board admitted they could have done some things better/differently. Is that any different than the rest of us? We can all look back at past events and 2nd guess. Thats easy.

I attended the meeting as well.

Brian Allen did not say "he was upset by the number of emails".

He actually said he was glad to receive input and parental involvement. He was pleased the board held the meeting to talk and he was glad that parents were there to speak and be heard.

He also commented that is what is better about Charter Schools vs. other schools there would/may not have even been a meeting for parents to talk.

The press shows up at the school lobby the other day waiting for some emotional bafoon to give them a soundbite and of course there were some parents there to oblige making statements like "they have run this school into the ground" and other such nonsense.

After examining the FACTS, this could not be farther from the truth but of course some enjoy being on camera and getting their "15 mintues". As a result of the media circus--kids missed school. Great.

I guess that is the medias job though--or at least they think it is--to dramatize everything so that it will make someone pay attention to their "news" stories. The facts and the truth seem to get left behind though.

I am sorry to inform you of this fact but, if a school board over spends by $300,000 and doesn't find out until after the fiscal year is over, they are "running the school into the ground". If that same school board finds out that they are $250,000 over budget in November, they are "running the school into the ground".

MVA has replaced their director and some of the original board members because of the mismanagement of funds last year, yet the current director and board are not only continuing down the same path they are further down that path!

My question to the State Charter School Board of Education and to the State Office of Education is at what point is MVA or any other Charter School, over budget enough to warrant State takeover of operations? MVA is about 30 months old and admits to $550,000 in over spending to date. Maybe they should completely end 7th and 8th grades and bring back the 6th grade teachers.

My Oh My... your are fooling yourself if you don't think this kind of thing happens all the time in public schools and at USOE. It's how things get done.

Some charters do stupid things and some traditional schools do stupid things.

I agree with "Too Much Drama" it's the reporters job to sell papers not necessarily to tell the whole truth.

Why on earth would any teacher want to teach at a charter school.

Honestly.

While I don't like the timing or the letting go of three great teachers I understand the need. There is no "good" way to communicate such major changes. Communication AND Financing are crucial to run a productive school. From the very beginning 6-8th grade was to be part of the junior high. This is not a new concept. Read the web site. Enrolling in a charter school is a choice. To publicly criticize the institution of your choice before having all the facts and before communicating with the people involved and getting answers is shameful. I'm embarrassed for the parents that threw a literal temper tantrum. As a Mountainville parent I would rather see the finances in order sooner rather than later. I would be hugely embarrassed if I had never attended one of the open meetings or voted on proposals and still threw a hissy fit when things didn't happen the way I wanted. Choice is great, but you do actually have to choose. Get the facts, get answers, get communicating (properly), get involved, then and only then throw a fit...and call the local news (but only if your dying for your "15 minutes" of ridiculous fame.

Charter schools are for parents that want to go to a private school but aren't willing to fork out the money.

What a complete joke.

Thanks for building them though. It has cleared out some much needed space at our local school.

To Not True:

Brian Allen talks out of both sides of his mouth. He is the consummate politician. Be very wary of anything he says.

....from reading this article that there were alot of people at the meeting that generally supported the boards good efforts. That is not to say the board is perfect--they admitted they could have done things differently. As they said "hindsight" is always alot better.

There were certainly a group of parents at the meeting though that were there to attempt to embarass the board by nitpicking everything that woulda/coulda/shoulda been done so that they would have gotten what they wanted. Forget how it impacts other teachers/students/the school overall--they were very myopic.

The nattering negative nellies stand and complain that the school finances are such a huge problem and then two minutes later stood up and criticized the board for making changes that will correct the financial problems.

Despite that vocal negative complaining group, I think the board has made decisions that were difficult to make and operated in the long term best interest of the school.

Once again, there is always that group that complaining is what they do best and nothing but their opinion matters.

The curriculum/plan at Mountainville is in good shape and will continue to be successful in educating kids.

I attended the meeting as well. The largest round of applause came when a mother stated that the 7:45 morning tantrum/media spectacle was uncalled for and that the upset parents need to leave the kids out of this.

I support the board's decision. The new administration inherited the deficit from the former administration. 6th grade should have always been in the middle school. Last year the former administration hired 3 additional teachers to make the 6th grade part of the elementary school. After the recent audit, it was blatantly obvious there was not money for these extra teachers. The board corrected this problem and is putting the 6th grade back where it belongs, in the middle school.

I applaud the board for being responsible with the taxpayers money. I also applaud them for being respectful during this difficult transition. I wish I could say the same about the handful of parents who insist on throwing a tantrum.

Anonymous,

I have forked out the money for my child to attend a Charter school. I have paid my taxes for years expecting a decent education to come out of it, only to find out once my child reached school age that the "district bull" and the UEA took my money and left town. Yes, I have paid more than many parents who send their kids to private schools. I just choose not waste my tax dollars on sub-par curriculum and discipline standards and dangerous teachers.

Teacher,

The reason our teachers want to teach at our public charter school is the increase in pay, parental involvement, school uniforms, lack of district strangleholds, discipline and values taught to students, content rich curriculum and the ability to not work with uninformed, loud mouths such as yourself.

My Oh My,

You are delusional if you believe that ANY public school does not have secret meetings and over-spend their budget. Not only do the schools do this, their Districts are notorious for it. Get a Clue!

Charter/Private = BAD

Government mandates a fair and free education for all. Complaining parents (who want private but can't afford it) have forced the government to split resources and create charter schools, thus raising the burden on every taxpayer to now fund two forms of education. It's a terrible shame that those that have still have and those that have not still don't. The fact that we purposely segregate ourselves is terrible.

As for the budgets...any Administrator at a Public school would be in serious trouble if he/she did not accurately budget BEFORE the school year began. These charter board volunteers have taken on MUCH too much responsibility; they are regular people trying to be educators. Let educators be educators and let regular folks be just that, regular.

This whole situation is a terrible shame. Parents taking chances with children's futures, in a failing endeavor.

Parents, not schools, make the ultimate difference in a child's life and future. Get over the elitist pride and get on with teaching your children how to be contributing members of society.

BTW, I hold a teaching certificate. I would NEVER send my children anywhere that would not be beneficial to their futures.

What a disgusting scene it was seeing out of control parents on the news surrounded by children acting with mob-like behavior. I was incredibly disgusted that these children are being taught to whine and complain about things in a childish manner. Unfortunately, this seems to be our future...and that future leads to larger acts of civil disobedience (crime, road rage, disrespect of persons and properties, neglect).

What a terrible shame this all is and what a horrible future we're building for ourselves!

And funny that Taxpayer says the loud mouths got left in the regular public schools. I think they are documented on television. It was CHARTER SCHOOL parents throwing fits and acting childish.

Whew. I am glad people like that prefer charter schools. Then I don't get stuck teaching their children and being subject to their tantrums.

Here's my concerns:

--Why not tell us the exact reason for getting rid of these three teachers, because Middle School licensed teachers were being underutilized which would lead to less funding (google "FTE charters utah""). Mountainville has between 8-11 licensed middle school teachers, but only had 5.8 credited to them per the state in 2007. Middle school teachers bring in more funding than elementary school teachers.

--Mountainville is receiving approx. $134k to reduce class sizes which is calculated at student to teacher ratio. How does the school justify improving that ratio with firing 3 teachers, and then ask to increase their students to over 700 (recently petitioned the state for this).

--Why do this now when the school has reserves of over $600,000....why not wait until summer. These teachers salaries were altogether under $100,000 (around 30k a piece)....there's something they're not telling us, they had the funds to keep the teachers, at least until summer.

--Why not look at the school's Lease payments that are made to state legislators Morley and Ferrin (and former legis. Way) as a place to "save" money? The Lease is excessive, and unethical.

--Why hide all the facts? We're not as ignorant as you think.