Local superintendents oppose Windy Boy charter school bill

Some public school superintendents in north-central Montana say a bill to change how charter schools are overseen is unnecessary.

In Montana, current administrative rules say charter schools can be established if a school district’s publicly elected board of trustees submits a charter to the Montana Board of Public Education. If approved by the Board of Public Education, a charter school is then formed and overseen by the trustees.

House Bill 376, introduced last month by state Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, and passed by the Montana House of Representatives, would do away with the Montana Board of Public Education’s role in the process and substitute it with a seven-member State Charter School Commision with chartering jurisdiction and authority. The commission would be chaired by the state superintendent of public instruction, while the governor, state Senate president and Speaker of the Montana House Of Representatives would each appoint two of the six remaining members.

The Fort Belknap Indian Community council and Chippewa Cree Business Committee of Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation have passed  resolutions supporting the bill.

Windy Boy, who has championed charter schools as a way to address dropout rate and close achievement gaps, especially in schools on and near Indian reservations, has not specified why existing laws pertaining to charter schools under state regulation need to be changed.

“To me the bill is more about changing the oversight, where that happens, and, to me, the Board of Public Education seems like the appropriate place for that oversight,” said North Star Schools Superintendent Bart Hawkins.

Rocky Boy School Superintendent Voyd St.Pierre and Timothy Bronk, interim superintendent with the Chester-Joplin-Inverness School District had not responded to requests for comment before print deadline this morning.

But Superintendents from Big Sandy, Box Elder, Chinook, Havre, Harlem and Turner said the same as Hawkins, and that charter schools such as the Bridger Alternative High School in Bozeman already exist in Montana under current rules.

“We have language for charter schools, and other places have done it successfully, so that option is already there,” Big Sandy Public School Superintendent Brad Moore said.

Hays-Lodge Pole Public School Superintendent Margaret Campbell said she has not yet read the bill, but said taking public education dollars to fund charter schools without requiring to meet state education standards is unconstitutional.

Havre Superintendent Andy Carlson said he has questions on what the qualifications would be for someone appointed to the committee. He said one section of the bill says members of the new commission “must collectively possess substantial experience and expertise in educational design, leadership, assessment, curriculum and instruction,” but doesn’t specify what those qualifications are.

“Give me clarification on that,” Carlson said.

“The essence of this charter bill basically says it is all hands off,” Carlson said. “There will be no accreditation, there will be no licensure rules. So much of that has been set up through Montana code and the Board of Public Education but they want to create an entity … that doesn’t have any guidance and structure to it.”

“That is kind of the issue that has been with charter schools that they don’t have to play by the same accreditation and hiring standards and programs to be offered and that kind of thing,” said Box Elder School Superintendent Tom Peck. “They can do whatever they want.”

Windy Boy’s bill passed the House 55-44. The Montana legislative website says a hearing on the bill is scheduled for March 27 in the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee.