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.