Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast is recommending the county’s first charter school for approval. If approved, the Community Montessori Public Charter School would offer pre-kindergarten through third grade starting in fall 2012.
The county school board is scheduled to hear from Crossway Community Inc. — the Kensington organization behind the charter school plan — and deliberate on Monday night, with a vote planned for July 7.
Crossway Community’s proposal was originally submitted and rejected last year. However, the Maryland Board of Education overturned the decision, ordering the Montgomery County board to revisit the decision. The state board’s opinion cited biased school board members and a failure to provide the reasoning for rejecting the application.
Montgomery County Board of Education President Christopher Barclay said the board had taken issue with a number of aspects of the proposed Montessori school, ranging from inadequate transportation to an inability to meet the academic needs of the students.
Weast’s new recommendation is based on the judgment of a county review panel that looked at the revised application submitted April 1. Weast, who is retiring at the end of the month, was unavailable for comment.
“There are some details that we need to work out with them,” said Montgomery County Education Association President Doug Prouty, who sits on the review panel. Overall, the panel was “very impressed with the changes that were made.”
Lori-Christina Webb, executive director for the deputy superintendent of schools and a member of the panel, praised Crossway for using the criticism of the previous application to perfect the new one. In particular, Webb cited the school’s “strong academic design.”
The school board has not been receptive to charter school applications. In a questionnaire last year, then-President Patricia O’Neill said she was “skeptical about charter schools,” and multiple board members expressed concerns about the potential burden on the school system’s budget.
However, O’Neill called Weast’s recommendation on Thursday “very positive” and explained that she’s “a skeptic by nature, and not just related to charter schools.” She said the Community Montessori Public Charter School may serve “needs that are unmet in the district.”
Although school board member Laura Berthiaume declined to comment on Crossway Community’s application specifically, she said she hopes that any charter school the board approves is “so wonderfully successful that we’ll see lots more applications.”
“We’re really excited about the possibility of a partnership with [Montgomery County Public Schools],” said Crossway Community Executive Director Kathleen Guinan.
