Boulder Valley team: Reject charter school for gifted

A Boulder Valley School District review team has recommended the denial of an application for a new charter school for gifted students, saying in part that it appears to be a spinoff of a now-closed private school.

The seven-member school board will hear public comment Tuesday night on an application for the Boulder Valley Academy for Gifted and Exceptionally Motivated Students before voting to approve or deny it.

The charter application, which was submitted in September, is the first the district has received in four years. If approved, the academy would be the sixth charter school in Boulder Valley.

A 21-person team made up of district staff members and directors reviewed the application and is recommending the school board deny the proposed school for reasons including the application's "incompleteness and failure to meet minimum standards."

The team also states that it's "very concerned" that the proposed school "is a possible conversion from a private school," which is against the law.

The Rocky Mountain School for the Gifted in Boulder closed after the 2008-09 school year, and the district's review team suspects the proposed charter would be a sort of spin-off, according to Deirdre Pilch, the district's assistant superintendent of school leadership for middle and high schools. Pilch led the review team and wrote its report.

For example, Pilch wrote, the charter application says "the recent disruption and closing of a local private school for the gifted has motivated a group of parents to look for educational options that would be an accessible option for all who are interested, rather than to create a new private school accessible only to those with financial means."

Several members of the steering committee have ties to the former school; about half of the families that were enrolled at the closed school have expressed interest in attending the new charter school; and the new charter is proposed for the former site of the Rocky Mountain gifted school, according to Pilch.

Kathy Payne, a member of the proposed school's steering committee, said the review team's accusations are untrue and "silly."

"Why would we try to replicate something that failed?" Payne said. "That doesn't make any sense. We have no desire whatsoever to be some extension or replacement for that school."

A few parents, board members and staff members from the Rocky Mountain gifted school have joined the charter initiative because "this is a small community -- the gifted community," Payne said.

"We have met people over the years of advocating for our kids," said Payne, who was a board member at the former Rocky Mountain school from 2004 to 2006.

As for the district's accusations that the application was "incomplete," Payne said, she thinks the review committee missed some of the information provided in the application.

"It's not a perfect document, and we are trying to look at where there might be some confusion," she said.

Sharon Keck, another member of the proposed school's steering committee, said her group is willing to be flexible with the district's requests to improve plans for the new school and clarify certain aspects of how it will be run.

"If we have done something that's not correct, we will modify it," Keck said. "But is that enough to deny the charter?"

Keck and Payne said they're troubled by some of the "harsh" language and accusations in the review team's report.

"I'm concerned about the wording and accusations of us replacing a private school," Keck said. "We responded to that, and for them to put that in print was alarming to me."

In 2004, Boulder Valley lost its exclusive authority to deny or accept charter applications after the district placed a ban on new charter schools. The state returned Boulder Valley's exclusive authority the following year.

Boulder Valley recently argued in court that the Colorado Charter School Institute -- which has appointed leaders who can open and operate charter schools in districts without approval from locally elected board members -- is unconstitutional. The Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear the district's arguments in October, ending a multi-year lawsuit.

Lee Beckstrom, a former teacher at the Rocky Mountain school who is now on the steering committee for the new charter, said he thinks the district's recommendation to deny the new charter application shows Boulder Valley's bias against charters.

"If they reject it, that is just evidence of that," Beckstrom said. "It's a shame that Boulder Valley is apparently simply against charters."