NC weighing changes to charter school agreements

The proposal made during a special meeting Thursday spells out state law on conflicts of interest and several issues related to a charter school being forced to close. Those include explanations of due process for the school and requirements on maintaining assets and records.

The department’s legal division recommended the changes, along with three others that would have been substantive changes but were removed before the vote.

“We’re not adding any requirements, not taking away any requirements,” Board Chairwoman Cheryl Turner said. “We are just clarifying existing law so that it is actually written into the agreement.”

Still, Turner said the board will consider other modifications this summer and fall, with public input.

The Charter School Advisory Board, State Board of Education and other leaders have also criticized Torchlight Academy’s board of directors for failed oversight of the school, including McQueen’s alleged self-dealing and other conflicts of interest.

On Thursday, the board unanimously approved the charter agreement for Wayne STEM Academy, after the school consented to amend a third-party contract that permitted the contractor to replace school board members. Charter School Advisory Board members felt that violated conflict of interest laws.

A provision specifying contracts like that are prohibited was included among the legal clarifications the advisory board voted on Thursday. The clarifications were written into the state’s charter agreement template for new schools.

The advisory board, after nearly an hour of closed session, approved the proposed changes by a vote of 8-1, with Terry Stoops dissenting.

The State Board of Education must approve the changes and Wayne STEM Academy’s charter at a future meeting, likely to take place as a special meeting later this month.

After that, the Charter School Advisory Board and the Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Charter Schools will consider adding further requirements and oversight within the default charter agreement that schools must sign with the state.

Turner didn’t specify what those changes might be, but the board’s vote Thursday removed three recommendations originally made by DPI that would have been substation changes, rather than clarifications of existing law.

Those changes — outlined in the agreement as rules 4.5, 4.6 and 27.4 — would have required charter school board members to undergo training, new charter school board members to undergo background checks, and State Board of Education approval of agreements or amended agreements with education management organizations.

Currently, the members of the state board and of local school boards must take several hours of training but charter school board members do not.