New Hope Academy Charter School v. School District of the City of York

89 A.3d 731, 2014 WL 1356085, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 210
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 8, 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 89 A.3d 731 (New Hope Academy Charter School v. School District of the City of York) 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
New Hope Academy Charter School v. School District of the City of York, 89 A.3d 731, 2014 WL 1356085, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 210 (Pa. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION BY

Senior Judge COLINS.

This matter is a petition for review filed by New Hope Academy Charter School (New Hope) appealing an order of the State Charter School Appeal Board (Board) that upheld the decision of the School District of the City of York’s School Board (School Board) denying renewal of New Hope’s charter. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that renewal of New Hope’s charter was properly denied for failure to meet state academic perform-[733]*733anee requirements. We therefore affirm the Board.

Facts and Procedural History

In 2007, the School District of the City of York (School District) granted New Hope a five-year charter under the Charter School Law.1 New Hope’s charter provided that it was to be a middle school and high school encompassing grades 7 through 12, with approximately 84 students per grade. In accordance with its charter, New Hope began operations with grades 7 and 8 in the 2007-2008 school year and added grades 9 and 10 in the 2008-2009 school year. New Hope’s charter originally provided that it would add grades 11 and 12 in the 2009-2010 school year. As a result of charter amendments requested by New Hope and granted by School District expanding New Hope to include grades 5 and 6, New Hope added grades 6 and 11 in 2009-2010, added grade 12 in 2010-2011, and added grade 5 in 2011-2012.

New Hope’s charter included in its “measurable academic goals and objectives” that “[t]he student will meet the proficient level in language arts and mathematics.” (New Hope Charter and Charter Application at 15, Reproduced Record (R.R.) at 3a, 616a.) New Hope’s charter also provided that achievement of its goals and objectives would be measured by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), stating that “[sjeores from the PSSA will be used to measure the student progress in regards to the State Standards.” (Id. at 92, R.R. at 694a.)

The percentages of New Hope’s students scoring proficient or better on the PSSA in the five years of its charter were as follows:

Reading Math
2008 36.6% 19.9%
2009 32.6% 22.4%
2010 32.5% 31.5%
2011 34.7% 32.2%
2012 37% 35%

(Board Opinion Finding of Fact (F.F.) ¶ 28 and Discussion at 27-28; School Board Certified Record (C.R.) Ex. J SD-14, SD-15, SD-16; Board C.R. SD Supplemental Ex. C.) The increases in math proficiency correspond in part to higher proficiency rates in new 7th grade and 6th grade classes, not solely to increased proficiency levels in existing students from one year to the next. (See, e.g., School Board C.R. Ex. J SD-14 (showing 2009 math proficiency rates of 37% for 7th grade vs. 14.8% for 8th grade, and 2010 math proficiency rates of 83% for 6th grade and 40.4% for 7th grade vs. 31.3% for 8th grade).) For 11th graders, the group that would have been at New Hope the longest, the percentage of New Hope students scoring proficient or better was only 26.6% in reading and 17.7% in math in 2011 and 25% in reading and 14% in math in 2012. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶ 30; School Board C.R. Ex. J SD-14; Board C.R. SD Supplemental Ex. C.) New Hope’s percentages of students scoring proficient on the PSSA have been lower than the percentages of students scoring proficient in School District’s schools in all years that it has been in existence. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶ 29 and Discussion at 28-29; School Board C.R. Ex. J SD-14; School Board C.R. February 29, 2012 Hearing Transcript (H.T.) at 94, R.R. at 306a.)

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) set the following Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards under [734]*734the No Child Left Behind Act2 for the percentage of students scoring proficient or better on the PSSA: 63% in reading and 56% in math for 2008-2010, 72% in reading and 67% in math for 2011, and 81% in reading and 78% in math for 2012. (Board Opinion at 27; Pennsylvania Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook at 31-32, R.R. at 572a-573a.) Even if a school does not satisfy those AYP proficiency thresholds, AYP can also be achieved through other safe harbor and growth methods based on reductions in the percentage of non-proficient students and improvements in scores toward proficiency. (Pennsylvania Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook at 25-26, R.R. at 566a-567a; School Board C.R. February 23, 2012 H.T. at 115-23, R.R. at 165a-171a.) New Hope did not make AYP under any of the methods permitted by Pennsylvania for achieving AYP in any of the years it has been in existence and has now been placed in Corrective Action II by PDE. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶ 26 and Discussion at 27; School Board C.R. March 8, 2012 H.T. at 36-37, R.R. at 386a-387a; School Board C.R. February 23, 2012 H.T. at 124-25, 130-31, R.R. at 173a, 177a-178a.)

In the fall of 2011, the final year of its original charter term, New Hope hired an education consultant, Dr. Michael Clemens, to help it improve its academic performance. (Board Opinion at 29; School Board C.R. February 29, 2012 H.T. at 72-74, 81-82, R.R. at 284a-286a, 293a-294a.) Dr. Clemens concluded that New Hope was weak in the areas of “curriculum, instruction, and assessments aligned with state standards,” “the frequent monitoring of learning and teaching,” and “focused professional development.” (Board Opinion at 29; School Board C.R. February 29, 2012 H.T. at 86-87, R.R. at 298a-299a.) In Dr. Clemens’ opinion, New Hope’s curriculum, at the time of his review in late 2011, was not aligned with Pennsylvania state academic standards as required by 22 Pa.Code Chapter 4. (Board Opinion at 29; School Board C.R. February 29, 2012 H.T. at 88-89, R.R. at 300a-301a.)

New Hope’s founder, Isiah Anderson, owns three companies that do substantial business with New Hope: Three Cord, Inc. (Three Cord), Three Cord Youth Services, LLC (TCYS), and I. Anderson Real Estate. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶ 32; School Board C.R. March 1, 2012 H.T. at 63, 66-69.) Three Cord is a for-profit company solely owned by Anderson that was incorporated by him in February 2007. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶ 33; School Board C.R. March 1, 2012 H.T. at 63-64.) Three Cord manages New Hope under written management agreements that require New Hope to pay Three Cord 15% of its gross revenues and entitle Three Cord to 50% of any unrestricted net income after expenses. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶ 34; School Board C.R. Ex. K NH-14 Management Agreement ¶¶ 6.5, 6.7, R.R. at 19a-20a; School Board C.R. Ex. J SD^46 Amended and Restated Management Agreement ¶¶ 9.1-9.4.) TCYS operates Challenge Academy, an Alternative Education for Disruptive Youth (AEDY) program in which New Hope places disruptive students. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶¶ 33, 35; School Board C.R. February 23, 2012 H.T. at 46, R.R. at 108a; School Board C.R. March 1, 2012 H.T. at 68; Board C.R. NH Supplemental Ex. 7 at 22.) I. Anderson Real Estate owns the school building that New Hope uses and leases it to New Hope. (Board Opinion F.F. ¶¶ 36-37; School Board C.R. March 1, 2012 H.T. at 75-77; School Board C.R. Ex. J SD-45a; Board C.R. NH Supplemental Ex. 7 at 22.)

[735]*735Anderson is not a member of New Hope’s board of trustees and is not a salaried employee of New Hope. (Board Opinion at 47; School Board C.R. Ex. J SD-38 at 7, SD-39 at 7, SD-40 at 7; Board C.R. NH Supplemental Ex. 6 at 7.) New Hope’s charter, however, provided that “Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
89 A.3d 731, 2014 WL 1356085, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 210, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-hope-academy-charter-school-v-school-district-of-the-city-of-york-pacommwct-2014.