Career Connections Charter High School v. School District of Pittsburgh

91 A.3d 736, 2014 WL 2048451, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 272
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 19, 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 91 A.3d 736 (Career Connections Charter High School v. School District of Pittsburgh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Career Connections Charter High School v. School District of Pittsburgh, 91 A.3d 736, 2014 WL 2048451, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 272 (Pa. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION BY

President Judge PELLEGRINI.

Career Connections Charter High School (Career Connections) petitions for review of an order of the Pennsylvania State Charter School Appeal Board (CAB) affirming the decision of the Board of Pub-[739]*739lie Education of the School District of Pittsburgh (District) which declined to renew Career Connections’ charter pursuant to Section 1729-A(a) of the Charter School Law (CSL).1 For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

Career Connections initially applied for a charter in 1998 which the District granted for a three-year period, and the school began operating in the 1999-2000 school year. The District renewed Career Connections’ charter in 2002 for an additional five-year term. On May 1, 2007, the District renewed the charter for another five-year term, subject to a March 21, 2007 resolution indicating that the District would continue to actively monitor Career Connections’ progress according to action plans for improvement negotiated during the renewal process.

By letter dated July 1, 2011, Career Connections notified the District of its intent to seek renewal of its charter for an additional five-year term. The District Review Team (Review Team) conducted a comprehensive review, which included a site visit to Career Connections on October 31, 2011. On March 6, 2012, the Review Team recommended to the District that the charter not be renewed because Career Connections did not continue to meet all conditions, standards and procedures contained in the written charter agreement; did not continue to meet requirements for student performance; did not provide the District with expanded choices in the types of educational opportunities currently being offered by the school system and was not able to serve as a model to other schools in the system; did not show a considerable level of parental involvement in the school or that a majority of parents were satisfied with the school; and had not addressed various facilities issues. (CAB’s October 7, 2013 Opinion at 5). On March 21, 2012, the District voted to accept the recommendation of the Review Team that it not renew Career Connections’ charter.

On May 7, 2012, the District sent Career Connections a Notice of Nonrenewal setting forth 23 specific bases for nonrenewal of its charter. Without assigning any of the 23 enumerated deficiencies to a specific category of violation, the Notice of Nonre-newal stated:

These deficiencies support the following causes for nonrenewal of the charter for [Career Connections]:
1. One or more material violations of any of the conditions, standards or procedures contained in the written charter.
2. Failure to meet the requirements of student performance set forth in 22 Pa.Code Ch. 4 (relating to curriculum) [740]*740or failure to meet any performance standards set forth in the written charter.
3. Failure to meet generally accepted standards of fiscal management or audit requirements.
4. Violation of provisions of the Charter School Law.
5. Violation of any provision of law from which the charter school has not been exempted, including Federal laws and regulations governing children with disabilities.

{Id. at 8). Following a series of public hearings and a 30-day public comment period, a hearing officer submitted Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law (Adjudication) to the District’s Board recommending non-renewal of the charter.2 The District adopted by resolution the hearing officer’s Adjudication in its entirety and declined to renew Career Connections’ charter for the requested term.

Career Connections then appealed to the CAB, which affirmed the District’s decision not to renew the charter because Career Connections: (1) failed to meet the requirements for student performance set forth in the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s (PDE) regulations and in its own charter; and (2) committed a number of material violations of its charter. Specifically, the CAB found that Career Connections failed to offer: a choice between two daily schedules; a year-round academic calendar; an interdisciplinary curriculum; valuable and meaningful learning experiences to all students through the use of an internship; and courses promised in the charter application. The CAB held that Career Connections’ failure to provide these items and its accompanying failure to seek approval from the District for making such changes constituted material violations of the charter justifying nonrenewal. This appeal by Career Connections followed.3

[741]*741I.

Career Connections first argues that the CAB erred in concluding that it failed to meet the standards for student performance set forth in the PDE’s regulations or in its charter. In support of this argument, Career Connections alleges that neither the PDE’s regulations nor the Career Connections charter requires a minimum level of proficiency on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests in order for a charter to be renewed. It also argues that the performance of its students is gradually improving, and its students’ PSSA scores generally exceed those of students from its primary feeder schools.

A.

Section 1729-A(a)(2) of the CSL permits a school district to deny renewal of a charter school’s charter for “[fjailure to meet the requirements for student performance set forth in 22 Pa.Code Ch. 5 (relating to curriculum) or subsequent regulations promulgated to replace 22 Pa.Code Ch. 5 or failure to meet any performance standard set forth in the written charter ...” 24 P.S. § 17-1729-A(a)(2).4 “Chapter 4 of Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code sets forth the PSSA as the measure of student and school performance and sets standards of performance to be measured by the PSSA, including proficiency. 22 Pa.Code §§ 4.2, 4.51(a), (b), (e).” New Hope Academy Charter School v. School District of City of York, 89 A.3d 781, 737 (Pa.Cmwlth.2014). “The Chapter 4 regulations also provide that the PSSA is designed to measure ‘student and school performance consistent with the No Child Left Behind Act[5].’ 22 Pa.Code § 4.51(a)(1).” Id. “The No Child Left Behind Act requirements that Chapter 4 references, including proficiency as the measure for AYP ... are set forth in 22 Pa.Code Chapter 403, 22 Pa.Code §§ 403.1-403.3.” Id. “Proficiency as measured by PSSA test scores is therefore a Chapter 4 student performance requirement.” Id. We have held that a “consistently low percentage of students scoring proficient or better on the PSSA constitutes a failure to satisfy Chapter 4 student performance requirements and is a valid ground for nonrenewal of a school’s charter ... where the charter school’s proficiency rates are lower than those of its school district’s schools as a whole and no clear pattern of significant improvement in its PSSA results is shown.” Id.; Ronald H. Brown Charter School v. Harrisburg City School District, 928 A.2d 1145, 1152-53 (Pa.Cmwlth.2007).

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Bluebook (online)
91 A.3d 736, 2014 WL 2048451, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/career-connections-charter-high-school-v-school-district-of-pittsburgh-pacommwct-2014.