Anne Arundel County officials are struggling to keep KIPP Harbor Academy open.
The charter school recently announced plans to close because it has outgrown the space it used at Sojourner-Douglass College for the past two years.
At a meeting closed to reporters Monday, County Executive John Leopold and Schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell discussed having the academy use classrooms at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis or adding portable classrooms to Sojourner-Douglass College in Edgewater.
“The clock is ticking,” Leopold said after the meeting. “We do not want Anne Arundel to be the first of [several KIPP] schools in 16 states to close.”
KIPP ? Knowledge is Power Program? is one of 38 open-enrollment college preparatory schools serving low-income communities, according to the school Web site. Anne Arundel?s academy wants to add a seventh grade to its fifth and sixth grades.
KIPP officials had requested space at Annapolis Middle School, “but that option is still off the table,” school system spokesman Bob Mosier said.
Space is limited because of renovations and the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program, a magnet initiative drawing students countywide, he said.
The upcoming fiscal year budget could fund space, and the academy has shown improvement in test scores and discipline, Leopold said.
The school?s board will discuss options Wednesday.
“It?s up to them,” Mosier said. “We?ve done everything we can from this end to help them.”
Monday?s meeting between Maxwell and Leopold was a rare collaboration since they began squabbling over the budget.
Leopold, who said he initiated the meeting, and Mosier downplayed any significance of the meeting, saying the future of KIPP was at stake.
Examiner Staff Writer Jason Flanagan contributed to this story.
