Green School founders intend to stay involved in community

May 02--The Green School charter won't be opening in Bloomington in fall 2015 after organizers chose this week to withdraw their application for state authorization, but the group is still planning to have a role in the community.

"We've applied for our nonprofit status, and we're going to keep that open," said Mary Goral, proposed director of the Green School. "We feel like we have a lot to offer; I don't know what form it will take."

A prepared statement from the organizers of the proposed charter school said, "We are looking at and open to all future possibilities for serving families and children in the community."

Goral said the group withdrew its application because the staff of the Indiana Charter School Board did not recommend authorization of the school, and the board has never approved a school that its staff has not recommended.

According to Goral, the Green School did not receive a positive recommendation because the charter's proposal needed improvement. From Goral's point of view, the issues that concerned the staff could have been remedied before the school opened.

The charter board staff considers recommendations based on three factors: evidence of capacity, education plans and business plans.

For example, the ICSB staff felt the Green School would not be able to draw teachers based on the pay it planned to offer, Goral said. "We didn't agree with that." The Green School application stated it would offer an average teacher salary of $36,000 with insurance and retirement benefits.

"In the area of education, they believe we would not be able to attract teachers to teach the model because it is very intricate and complex," she said.

The charter intended to use an arts-infused, Waldorf-inspired curriculum with a focus on sustainability.

"They didn't believe in the current charter school climate that we would be able to get a loan for our site," Goral said, but she disagreed with that assessment. "We had spoken with three different financial institutions, all of whom had shown interest."

The site for the school proposed in the Green School's application was the Woolery Stone Mill, at 2200 W. Sunstone Drive.

While the ICSB staff did not intend to recommend authorization for the charter, Goral said, officials recognized the effort put into developing the plan for the school.

"They were very complimentary with our proposal," she said.

The Green School sought authorization in 2013 from the office of charter schools at Ball State University under the name Green Meadows.

After choosing to revise and resubmit its application, organizers filed a letter of intent with the state board in January 2014.

Now that the Green School has not received authorization after its second attempt, Goral said, "We're discouraged, I must say, and tired."

Goral said the Green School will continue to post updates to its website at www.thegreenschoolbloomington.org and its Facebook page.

If the charter school application had been approved, organizers planned to open the Green School in fall 2015 and enroll 240 students in grades K-8.

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