Two theories on why Coatesville school’s charter was revoked [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

Nov. 30--After the school board in Chester County'sCoatesville Area School District revoked the charter of the Graystone Academy Charter School, two very different explanations emerged.

School Board President J. Neil Campbell said after the board vote last week that Graystone, which opened in 2002 and has 416 students in grades K-8, "has failed to be a justifiable learning institution."

The board president cited a long list of alleged charter violations from a hearing officer's report. They included academic failings and educational offerings and programs that the charter said in its application it would institute but later discontinued or never implemented.

The school also did not submit several audits on time and failed to insure some of its savings, he said. He concluded: "Simply, it's a question of whether we can continue to support an institution that has failed its students."

Graystone board of trustees president Jack Stollsteimer has a different interpretation: The vote was motivated, he said, by "money and power. . . . They decided to close the school long before the hearing."

Stollsteimer said the Coatesville board and administration, facing sizable budget challenges, want to save the $4.7 million the district paid to Graystone last school year to cover the education cost of its students. And the district administration, he said, "doesn't like not having the school under its control."

Graystone will ask the state Charter Appeals Board to overturn the ruling, he said, and expects to prevail.

Campbell, the Coatesville board president, and district Superintendent Richard Como did not return calls for comment.

All agree that Graystone, in a former Lukens Steel office building in South Coatesville, has struggled in recent years with low test scores and high administrative turnover.

Between 2008 and 2011, for example, the school had five principals, and several chief administrative officers.

Graystone did not meet state testing benchmarks for the last two years; test scores declined from 2007 to 2010. It showed some improvement this year, but it still scored below even the lowest-performing Coatesville school.

Stollsteimer, a former Philadelphia safe schools advocate -- he monitored school violence in the city -- joined the Graystone board 18 months ago in a bid to help the struggling school turn around.

He said new administrators were making a difference. And he pointed out that the school serves a higher percentage of low-income minority students than the parent district, making comparisons difficult.

Graystone attorney Brian Leinhauser acknowledged that the school changed its curriculum, reduced the number of school days, and did not institute several other programs or practices it outlined in its charter application.

But he said that legally, changes like that are not grounds for revocation unless a school's charter explicitly says that all the items described in an application have to be implemented as a condition of granting the charter. Graystone's charter does not, he said.

The school's 2009-10 audit was late but has been submitted, he said, and its funds are now insured.

Only a handful of charters have been revoked since the first charter schools opened in 1997; a few others have closed their doors after experiencing financial difficulties or coming under fire for questionable practices.

Contact staff writer Dan Hardy

at 215-854-2612, dhardy@phillynews.com, or @DanInq on Twitter.

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