Chesapeake Science Point Charter School in Hanover has until Feb. 23 to “cure” five problems.
“The word ?cure? means you will fix it, and you have a deadline,” said Superintendent Kevin Maxwell at an Anne Arundel school board meeting Wednesday.
Maxwell?s statement came on the heels of the school board?s decision to extend the school?s probation. He will make a recommendation based on the school?s progress in March.
Maxwell refuted rumors about the school?s probation being linked to the reassignment of Principal Fatih Kandil and physics teacher Ali Tuna earlier this month.
The school, which opened in 2005 and enrolls 218 sixth- through ninth-graders, has been on probation since the 2006-07 school year, officials said.
Next year, the charter school wants to enroll more ninth-graders, said Spear Lancaster, vice president of the school?s charter board, at the meeting.
Parent Cheri Winterton described how her unchallenged fifth-grader, enrolled in a county elementary school last year, was transformed into a sixth-grader who loved school and was succeeding in Algebra I.
“I understand the mandates and policies we require of our school and of the staff. … But a school is so much more than a building with policies,” she said.
“A successful school is and has always been the people. And Chesapeake Science Point has smart, respectful, dedicated and passionate people.”
Eighth-grader Nelson Glover, who had been home-schooled, said the smaller school helped him get to class easily and know everybody in the building.
School board members also acknowledged that the charter school had a high percentage of seventh- and eighth-graders passing the algebra component of last year?s High School Assessment.
Middle-schoolers are not required to take the test but those in an Algebra 1 program may take it.
Board Vice President Enrique Melendez saidthe concerns involved management, not test scores.
“I admit we haven?t done as good a job in communicating as we could have,” Lancaster said.
