FOLLOWUP: What will State Supreme Court ruling mean to just-approved West Seattle charter school Summit Atlas?

| Arbor Heights | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

As you might have heard by now, the State Supreme Court has ruled that the publicly funded charter schools stemming from Initiative 1240, approved by voters in 2012, are unconstitutional. The Friday afternoon ruling (see it here) said they’re not eligible for public funding because they’re not under local voters’ control.

This comes less than a month after the state Charter School Commission approved what would be West Seattle’s first charter school, a plan by California-based Summit Public Schools to open a middle-/high-school campus next year at what’s currently the Freedom Church/Jesus Center at 35th/Roxbury (newly named Summit Atlas, according to its website). Even before the state commission’s approval, the site was purchased by Washington Charter School Development for $4,750,000, with the intention of remodeling the supermarket-turned-church building into the school’s first wing (its seven grades are to be phased in, starting with 6th and 9th in the first year). Summit announced that the West Seattle school’s director, Greg Ponikvar, was starting work right after the approval, and had started taking applications.

Summit’s first two schools in Washington had just opened – one in the International District, one in Tacoma. We e-mailed Summit’s regional director Jen Davis Wickens (who we interviewed in July to talk about the West Seattle plan) to ask for reaction on the court ruling. Regarding the West Seattle plan, Wickens said, too soon to say: “Our lawyers are still analyzing the ruling and we’re working on our next steps.” Their Washington operation has been focused on reassuring the families enrolled in the two newly opened schools – here’s the letter Wickens said was sent to those enrolled at Summit Sierra last night in the ID by its director (principal), Malia Burns:

Dear Founding Spartan Families,

It is with sadness that I write this message to you this Friday evening before the holiday weekend.

Today, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that public charter schools are “unconstitutional.” The ruling is not a criticism of charter schools or charter school organizations like our, nor does not immediately shut down charter schools. The case will be sent back to King County Superior Court to determine next steps.

We want to assure you that school will be open on Tuesday, September 8th, as usual. We will be hosting a special community meeting Tuesday morning at 7:45 AM to provide updates.

Rumors and misconceptions can quickly take hold, but please remember that Summit remains deeply committed to each and every family.

Also, please know there are many folks fighting for our public charter schools. We will be working with our colleagues in other schools and with WA Charters to chart our collective path forward (updates will be available on the WA Charters website).

For those families that have asked how they can show their support for their school, please come to the community meeting Tuesday. We will share any and all information that we have with you then.

Our community is new, but it is powerful, courageous, and committed.

Here’s the statement that the Washington Charter School Association, mentioned in the letter, has published. Meantime, back to Summit Atlas, the 400-plus-page application it had filed with the state envisioned supplementary funding from charter-school-support organizations as well as the public funding set up by the voter-approved initiative; the organizations mentioned include the Hollyhock Foundation, CSGF Walton, and the Gates Foundation. You can see the budget documents starting with Attachment 25 in the application. Work has not yet started at the building, which its new owner had leased back to Freedom Church TFN.

mike September 5, 2015 (7:47 pm)

“because they’re not under local voters’ control” Agreed.

Greg September 5, 2015 (9:05 pm)

Thank you for the update WSB on this important landmark ruling. Looks like the WA supreme court agrees with my argument from the rigged summit application forum, that not giving tax payers a say into how a “public” school operates violatess the state constitution. I am overjoyed that these charlatans will have to pack up their tents and head back to California. Their smug condescension probably fits in better there anyhow.

Community Member September 5, 2015 (10:08 pm)

It seems to me there are a few ways this could turn out, other than forcing the charter outfits to leave.
.

The state legislature could quickly create local oversight through elected charter school boards.
.
Or the state legislature could mandate that the already existing local school boards support or sponsor the charters.
.
I’ve always believed that the charters should be under OSPI (Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) at any rate; if the OSPI rules for are too restrictive, then they should be changed for all schools, not just charters. And if the charters aren’t under the Superintendent of Public Instruction, then what they offer is by definition not public instruction. I expected the court to add OSPI supervision, but by mandating local control the court has gone much further.
.
But many states do have charter schools operating under elected charter boards: this court ruling says that they have to move the oversight system from California to local taxpayers. But that doesn’t force them to change their basic model.

WSB September 5, 2015 (10:47 pm)

I just saw the Times followup http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/calls-for-quick-legislative-fix-after-charter-school-ruling/ which includes some talk of a possible legislative fix.

Skeptical September 5, 2015 (10:35 pm)

The court said everything from the charter schools’ origination to its operations are not public. It isn’t just a matter of some trumped up “elected” board signing off on charters. The court came down hard and rightly so. Help the kids move to public or private schools or take a multi-year donation from Gates and co. Just don’t whine that the state is withholding resources. While (still) waiting for a decade for the McCleary mandate to force legislators to fund public schools, we don’t need to hear the bleets from a handful of quasi-public, non-established, charters.

Lynn September 5, 2015 (10:57 pm)

Community member,

Those elected charter school boards could change a schools basic model. Also, I don’t think there’s a chance the state could require an elected school board to be responsible for a charter school it did not authorize and does not support.

carole September 5, 2015 (11:05 pm)

Look to the problems with charter schools in Arizona and Ohio. In Ohio they actually falsified data to keep receiving public funds.

Tax payer September 5, 2015 (11:37 pm)

I just want to know when they’ll pay back the money they’ve stolen from our already underfunded public schools.

Greg September 6, 2015 (6:18 am)

The Charter people will have to work through the five stages of grief, but eventually they will accept that charters are not legal, using public money, in this state. They won’t run them as private schools because no parent in their right mind is going to pay more for worse results.

These operators owe Washington state an apology for opening prior to the end of the legal issues. They rushed to open to get the proverbial camels nose under the tent. They gambled and lost. Fortunately for the exceptionally small number of students, there is still time to fill in the enrollment paperwork at a real public school and in Seattle they won’t even miss day one.

JoB September 6, 2015 (7:39 am)

I want to know why the Seattle Times thinks it’s unprecedented for the Washington Supreme Court to rule that laws must be consistent with the State Constitution.

colleen September 6, 2015 (8:54 am)

Perhaps the “founding Spartan families” can fund their own privatized schools. WE need to be concentrating on improving public schools which ARE under local voter control. Or perhaps Paul Allen and Gill Gates can fund them. God knows they wanted us to pay for them.

Ivan September 6, 2015 (9:42 am)

I am confident, and most grateful, that none of the three legislators who represent West Seattle will even allow discussion of any “quick legislative fix” for charter schools. Our public schools are still under the McCleary decision, and until a stable source of funding for them is found, charters will be, and should be, s**t out of luck.
.
We all have our individual thresholds, but mine is to stop any discussion in which I hear the term “public charter schools.” These schools are NOT public. The Constitution of Washington tells me so, and the Supreme Court of Washington has backed that up. What other states do is their business.
.
I feel for the students who enrolled in these schools, and I feel for their families. But they were sold a bill of goods by a pack of grifters, and they chose to buy into it.
.
As I see it, the biggest villain in this drama is West Seattle’s own Steve Sundquist, head of the state Charter Commission, pillar of the Fauntleroy Community Church, former (defeated) Seattle School Board member, and tireless cheerleader for this now-failed experiment. He had the responsibility to warn all parents, and require of all charter school providers, to inform all families that this decision might be coming, or even had a chance of coming, and that it could wreck the entire charter setup that the Gates-funded Initiative 1240 had provided.
.
He didn’t, and by not doing so, he flunked his public responsibility. I am satisfied that the charter commission under his stewardship provided better oversight and more due diligence than I had expected it to, but the disappointment and dislocation that Summit’s students and their families are now experiencing are on Sundquist’s head and no one else’s.

Joe Szilagyi September 6, 2015 (9:49 am)

The best outcome would to be not pillage limited public school monies from desperate kids.
.
Once Olympia is forced by the Courts to comply with the State Constitution and has properly funded schools for a while, we can review and see if actually funded schools will leave us in a situation where it might be worth looking at charter schools for special purposes (like the STEM Aviation High School) or for extra help for special needs kids. Maybe we’ll actually need regular competition then. Maybe not.
.
But right now? We’re underfunding schools statewide and forcing them to run with with one leg tied to an anchor and both hands tied behind their back in shackles, with a potato sack on the free leg.

Joe Szilagyi September 6, 2015 (9:51 am)

We don’t need Charter Schools right now. We need our public schools to be funded to the letter of the law per the State Constitution.
.
Let’s Kim Davis the full legislature in Olympia if they will not comply with the court order. Do you jobs or go to jail until you do.

flimflam September 6, 2015 (10:09 am)

I am wondering how this got so far along (or even to a vote, really) if this was a possible outcome. it seems like a massive waste of time and, I would assume, money.

.
perhaps someone could explain what I am missing?

NO 1240 September 6, 2015 (10:40 am)

I’ve not seen a mandate from the Charter School Commission that mandated parents be notified that the issue of I 1240 was in the courts, and the future of charter schools, in Washington State, was uncertain.

Charter school operators opened schools, knowing full well, that I 1240 was in the court system. They took a gamble and lost. Did charter school operators notify parents that I 1240 was in the courts and the future of their children’s educational experience was uncertain?

I’ve heard individuals push to open charter schools, and I’ve heard them say, with full authority, that charter schools are Constitutional in Washington.

The Washington Charter Association has become desperate and they are posting pictures of the faces of children, that have been enrolled in charter schools. These children/families have become political pawns and the Washington State Charter Association should be ashamed of themselves.

Families need to realize that they were duped.

Alex September 6, 2015 (10:44 am)

Awesome. If our public schools have problems we need to work to fix them, not just give up and allow funding to be diverted elsewhere. Down with charters, and down with the Seattle times for their usual biased coverage.

NO 1240 September 6, 2015 (10:54 am)

Lastly, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided the League of Education Voters and others with millions of dollars for charter school expansion within Washington State.

Perhaps these dollars could be used to support enrolled children in private school and/or support services for these children in public schools.

Gates, Nick Hanauer and others were instrumental in funding I 1240 and expanding charter schools in Washington State. I hope someone gets a quote from these guys. The individuals, that were responsible for charter school roll-out have created an enormous mess.

Melissa Westbrook September 6, 2015 (1:32 pm)

“The state legislature could quickly create local oversight through elected charter school boards.”

And how would you hold elections that quickly? And determine how many and how long their terms are? And mandate school districts to oversee them? Again, with what money?

It would be a political disaster for Inslee to call a Special Session so I think not. If Gates and his friends (like Alice Walton of the Walmart fortune (who lives in Arkansas) want to front the money, fine. Don’t ask taxpayers at this point.

Flimflam, many of us rose up to decry I-1240 and it only passed by 2% (in Seattle, it failed). I don’t think most voters understood many of the ramifications of the law.

To echo what other have said, the Court had lousy timing to be sure. BUT all the outcomes are the fault of the following:

– the supporters of this law who wrote a “strongest charter law in the country” but refused to follow our state constitution. Note that our state – unlike most others – has very specific wording about public education. That is the issue. Those supporters, including Bill Gates, took this gamble.

– the Charter Commission who could have required that approved charters MUST disclose to prospective parents that a lawsuit was in play and, in fact, had gone to the Supreme Court. They did not.

– the approved charter schools themselves – nothing was stopping them from disclosing this lawsuit to parents on their own. I know of none that did so.

Parents at least should have had the option of considering this information.

These groups gambled with children’s academic lives and lost.

Terrance September 6, 2015 (10:08 pm)

The people voted for the initiative approving charter schools. Once again the liberals in this state and others like to have their way and their control. The people spoke and “the government by the people and for the people” have put their hands over the people’s mouths. Charter/private schools far and away out perform public schools. If they were truly concerned about the children they would “see” this. What I think these opponents are truly concerned about is the door this opened for Christians to teach what was once taught in our schools regularly back when they were successful and safe: A reverence for the God of the Bible, love your neighbor and learn.

WsEd September 7, 2015 (10:39 am)

Privatizing essential services almost always results in robbing the treasury. If families want private schooling they can pay for it at private institutions. Don’t whine you’re way into quasi eletism on public school dollars. If that’s all you can afford quit whining and join the PTA and help where you can.

Pixie B September 7, 2015 (11:53 am)

To throw another kink in the chain, How did a school get approved so close to two Medical Marijuana stores? This has me concerned. Did I misunderstand the regulation that the new marijuana stores and set medical M. stores need to be XX number of feet/blocks away from any school, child care center, etc?

MsD September 7, 2015 (9:41 pm)

If I had school age kids in Seattle, I’d simply move away. My several Seattle Public Schools teacher friends encourage this.

Ivan September 8, 2015 (3:30 am)

Hey Terrance, if charter schools “far and away outperform public schools,” let’s see some proof. I mean real, documented proof, not “people say.” Come on, let’s see it. I bet you can’t produce it, because it doesn’t exist.

Mickymse September 8, 2015 (1:55 pm)

Ivan, there is PLENTY of evidence readily available online that details how some charter schools are very successful and others aren’t — just like some public school are very successful and others aren’t. There is no data to suggest that charter schools — simply by the nature of being charters — are generally good or bad.

Childrens voice September 8, 2015 (7:57 pm)

Help me understand- I thought the dollars follow the student. If a student is not provided an adequate education at their local school is it true the district would not get their dollars anyway if they went elsewhere for their education? I don’t understand why students should not have options when it comes to their education- is it really taking money out of the current public school model? I must be missing something.

Sorry, comment time is over.