A Prince George’s County charter school that the Board of Education tried to shut down last week wants to have an agreement in place to keep the school open prior to a June 26 court hearing on the situation.
“Potomac Public Charter School’s board [of directors] is willing to work with the Board of Education … to reach an amicable solution,” said Marsha Byrd, president of the board of directors. “But the decision would rest with the Prince George’s County Board of Education.”
According to Byrd, the school is “in negotiations” with the Board of Education, but wouldn’t elaborate.
Schools spokesman John White said he didn’t have information on any negotiations.
“I don’t know what their conversations are,” he said. “If their attorneys are trying to work out something with our attorneys, I will have to wait to be advised.”
On Friday, a Prince George’s Circuit Court judge granted the school a temporary restraining order preventing the board of education from shutting it down. A hearing on the school’s request for an injunction to prevent a closure until the school exhausts the appeals process is scheduled for June 26. The school in Fort Washington instructs 137 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Tiffany Alston, an attorney for Potomac, said the school received a letter from the Board of Education June 11 notifying the school that its charter had been revoked and it would be shutdown June 15.
Alston said the school has been on probation since March over accounting questions, the need for a fully functioning governance board, whether there was a nurse at the school and other issues.
The attorney admitted the school had problems, and Byrd said, “the board has addressed many of the issues and is in the process of addressing the others.”
Though the probationary period technically extended until June 20, White said the school’s remediation plan was not adequate and a revised budget didn’t “sufficiently address a current budget deficit.”
White said the county gave Potomac $840,632 for the 2006-2007 school year.
“It was not fair for the charter to be revoked prior to the end of the probationary period,” Byrd said.
The school system postponed a meeting for Potomac parents scheduled for Monday night, in the wake of the temporary injunction.
