Anne Arundel County School District officials should decide within the next few weeks what kind of disciplinary action to take against the administration of the Chesapeake Science Point Charter School.
Allegations of mismanagement led to the March 6 dismissal of John Omural, the school?s director. Deputy Interim Superintendent Ken Nichols said he only learned after the fact that Omural also was not properly certified to be an administrator in Maryland.
“It’s a learning curve ? we put in two charter schools at the same time,” said School Board President Konrad Wayson. “There may be a few changes, but it?s a learning curve for all of us.”
Nichols said the Board of Education should receive the results of an internal investigation some time this month.
School Board President Konrad Wayson said he received a few phone calls from parents asking if the district would close the charter school. “At no point did we indicate the school would close,” Nichols said.
The Maryland Teachers? Association brought a grievance to the board in early March on behalf of Chesapeake Science Point teachers who complained of problems at the school and the lack of a certified administrator after the departure of Assistant Principal Kisha Webster. Kathy Lane, director of alternative education, said 11 students have transferred to other county middle schools since Webster?s departure.
Nichols said the board was investigating claims of teacher and student attendance problems, poor student record keeping, unbalanced workloads for teachers and personnel problems. The school also had to be cleaned at the district?s expense because the school?s board had failed to hire an adequate cleaning service, Nichols said.
The school closed for one day, on March 27, to reassign three out of the school?s seven teachers and reorganize classes. Three retired teachers have been assigned to the school to replace the three who asked to leave.
