Charter School Hearings Done; 1st Decision This Month

The 's charter school hearings are concluded and the first of three decisions is expected later this month.

Superintendent David Baugh said this week that the board will announce its decision Jan. 25 on a new or expanded charter for School Lane Charter School, a K-8 facility whose leaders want to open a high school.

His comments followed Wednesday's conclusion of a continued hearing with representatives of the MaST Charter School in Philadelphia who want to open a similar school based on math science and technology in the township. That facility, starting K-4 and expanding to 12th grade, would be called Isaac Newton Academy Charter School. Founders are looking at several potential sites.

The resumption of the hearing consisted of more than an hour of an INACS attorney cross-examining Baugh, who had presented his analysis close to midnight Dec. 19.

Patricia Hennessey renewed her request that the board accept supplementary evidence on its school curriculum that was not included in its original application, delivered the Friday before the start of the hearing on a Monday. Board member Kevin McKay tried to make a motion to include it but board attorney Tom Profy IV said that was not appropriate during the hearing. Profy said the board would take Hennessey's request under advisement.

Baugh has said the application lacks specifics on curriculum and instructional methods and materials. He acknowledged under questioning Wednesday that he had only scanned the supplemental curriculum evidence, saying “there was no reason to.”

Hennessey's questions involved the district's curriculum and instructional standards along with student access to different programs and courses. The queries implied that INACS would provide a learning environment equal or superior to the public district.

She asked if Bensalem students all have laptops, Kindles or Nooks, and Baugh said no.

“Do your students have daily access to a telescope,” she also asked. When Baugh replied there is no daily access but several telescopes throughout the science department, Hennessey asked if those telescopes were on tripods or in an observatory. Baugh said tripods.

MaST boasts the largest publicly accessible observatory telescope in the Delaware Valley. It was not stated that INACS students would have daily access to MaST's telescope.

Hennessy pointed out that while the district reached the state's Adequate Yearly Progress standard in 2010 it did so by “spanning.” She later said that means only a limited continuum of grade levels need to meet AYP for a district to be designated as having reached the overall standard.

MaST was recently named by Philadelphia Magazine one of the best schools in the city and was honored nationally in 2007 as the best charter school in the country. Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo has written a letter of support for INACS.

The deadline for the district to make a decision was unclear Wednesday night. Baugh predicted an announcement in early March.

INACS is one of four charter applications the district has reviewed the last two months.

Its first hearing was held on the expansion request of School Lane, which is the township's only charter school. Baugh previously described the application as School Lane's “next logical step.”

The prospective site for the new high school is the Glenview Corporate Center off of Street Road across from Parx Casino.

The plan is to begin with a ninth-grade class in August, with tenth-through-12th grade-classes starting in each of the following three years. The school would utilize the well-respected International Baccalaureate program.

The board also has to decide on the K-12 Bucks Academy Charter School, planned in an industrial park at 520 State Road. That approval appears unlikely after Baugh said the application does not align with state standards. He said Wednesday that decision is expected in late February.

The founders include former Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Mike Fanning, township policeman Andrew MacDougal, William Schilling, principal at the New Foundations Charter School in Philadelphia; and local businessman Ken McBrearty.

The founder of a fourth proposed school, Bensalem Entrepreneurial Charter, withdrew his request in early December after being questioned for about three hours by the board and administrators and acknowledging his budget might not be sufficient.

For each Bensalem student who enrolls in a charter school, the district must pay $10,500, the average cost per student in the district. The district also must provide free transportation for any township students who attend charter schools.

Denials of charter school applications can be appealed to the state.

In other business Wednesday, many members of the Indian community, both from Bensalem and New Jersey, came to the board meeting to praise the district's recent decision to add Hindi to its language course offerings.

Ashok Ojha, president of Yuva Hindi Sansthan, of Edison, called it a “unique decision.”

Specifically commended was board member Yagnesh Choksi, who advocated for the new course.

“I salute everybody involved in making this happen,” he said.