SOUTHEAST REGENTS NIX CHARTER SCHOOL

With no building and no financing, a proposed neighborhood school in south St. Louis won't hold classes this fall and must cope with having its charter revoked.

Southeast Missouri State University's Board of Regents on Thursday canceled the five-year charter less than a year after granting it.

The regents said the Garden School group has two months to find money and a building. The Garden School's board of directors must submit a new application by Oct. 15, which includes those conditions.

The application won't be considered without them, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast president.

Even with those conditions, the application would have to be reviewed by a university committee headed by former Sikeston superintendent Robert Buchanan. The regents said they would then make a final decision at their Dec. 14 meeting as to whether to grant a charter so the school could open in the fall of 2002.

Charter schools are taxpayer-funded public schools that operate independently of established school districts and elected school boards. State law only allows charter schools in the Kansas City and St. Louis school districts, and then only the chartered by specific universities or those two school districts.

Agreement not met

The regents said their initial approval of the Garden School last year included stipulations that the neighborhood group secure a suitable building and financing. The state provides funding based on enrollment, but none of that money can be spent to construct or lease a building.

The board in late September approved a charter for the Garden School, a proposed elementary and middle school that a group of residents wanted to start in a neighborhood near the Missouri Botanical Garden. The goal was to open a school with a heavy science and math curriculum that would utilize the learning resources of the botanical garden.

Southeast officials had expected the school would open this fall. The Garden School group had signed up 83 students for kindergarten through third grade classes.

Those parents ended up having to scramble in recent weeks to enroll their children in other schools, Dobbins said. "We don't think it is fair to the parents and students to have it happen again."

Kay Mantia lives in the south St. Louis neighborhood and is president of the charter school's board of directors.

She said her board won't be able to find a suitable building by the Oct. 15 deadline, and board members wanted the regents to grant a one-year extension.

"I just feel they could have given us a little bit of a chance," said Mantia.

Regent Kim Mothershead pushed unsuccessfully for an extension. "I feel they are trying to do their best.

"I would hate to see all their hard work go down the drain," she said. "I would like to see the school succeed."

But fellow regents said the board had little choice but to revoke the charter, a move recommended by Buchanan and Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The state agency has some supervisory responsibilities regarding charter schools.

Don Dickerson, president of the board of regents, said the Garden School group didn't meet the university's requirements.

"They have told us they can't comply, and they can't open this fall," he said.

If the Garden School group can't submit a workable application, then the regents may invite other applications, Dickerson said.

Lift for Life

Southeast already has one charter school in St. Louis, Lift for Life Academy. University officials said that school is doing well.

The regents declared a moratorium on any new applications after approving the Garden School charter last year. They said they wanted to see how those two schools worked before considering any other applications.

No one from the Garden School's board of directors attended Thursday's regents meeting. Mantia said they weren't invited.

Mantia said her group had operated in good faith, hiring a Boston-based company to manage the school even though they had no money to pay for the services. The management company, Beacon, operates other charter schools in St. Louis.

The Garden School group had hoped to lease a building from St. Louis Charter School, which also had a contract with Beacon. But the board of the St. Louis Charter School rejected the idea a few months ago.

The Garden School group then found another building. It wanted to lease the commercial structure, but the owners were only interested in selling it. "They wanted, at one point, $5 million," Mantia said. "Of course, we don't have that." The deal fell through in July, she said.