Give charter time, state board tells DPS

4-3 vote centers on whether school kept deal

David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 10, 2007 at midnight

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A poor-performing charter school got a reprieve Wednesday when the Colorado Board of Education told Denver Public Schools to reconsider its decision to shutter the campus next month.

The board voted 4-3 after much hand-wringing - so much so that board member Randy DeHoff made a motion to kick the decision back to DPS but then said he wasn't sure he could support his own motion.

"I don't think the decision should be made either by the local board or by this board based on what people are promising they're going to do in the future rather than what they failed to do in the past," DeHoff said, though he ultimately voted in favor of sending back the decision to DPS.

Amid the debating, the vote boiled down to whether the state board felt that Life Skills Center of Denver either didn't fulfill its contractual obligations with DPS or that it at least saved some students from dropping out of school entirely.

Board member Bob Schaffer, who voted with the majority, said Life Skills was a last chance for the student population that exercises the most frequent form of school choice in Denver Public Schools - dropping out.

"The bigger question is, how does the school compare with the street?" Schaffer asked. "Because that is the option that is being weighed and compared here. It's not whether these students are going to go somewhere else. I think the district has amply established that the likelihood of that is rather remote."

Life Skills entered into a charter agreement under Ohio- based White Hat Management in 2004 as an alternative school. But it was plagued with low test scores, low attendance and an inability to keep students enrolled. District officials argued that White Hat was getting paid to serve more students than it actually did.

The disagreement between Life Skills and the district staff was so deep that neither side could even agree on attendance rates. This came up again Thursday as both sides presented conflicting numbers about how many students were served by Life Skills.

The DPS Board of Education voted 6-1 in February not to renew its contract with White Hat. It was the only one of eight charter schools recommended not to be renewed.

Life Skills filed an appeal with the state board shortly after that vote.

At the state board meeting, attorneys for the district and Life Skills went back and forth for about 30 minutes.

Chairwoman Pamela Jo Suckla wasn't convinced that Life Skills should stay open.

"I don't know how long you let something go," she said. "Yeah, I see they changed this and changed that. . . . They needed to do this three years ago."

Despite the decision by the state board, Life Skills could still close its doors for good on June 30, when the contract with the district is up.

monterod@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5236

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