SHEBOYGAN, WI (WHBL) - The Sheboygan Area School District approved this week the reauthorization of five of their nine charter schools through the 2020/2021 school year. They included George D. Warren Middle School, Central High School, Elementary School for the Arts and Academics, Mosaic Middle School, and IDEAS Academy.
Superintendent Joe Sheehan tells WHBL News it is a typical procedure to do this with every charter school. “Here’s the delivery model that we have. Here’s the expectations that we have and how we’re going to evaluate if they are successful.” He says another part of that are participation levels and how many parents sign up their kids to take part.
However, there were some people who were surprised that it took longer for the Board of Education to approve the reauthorization. Sheehan says that is just what happened this time around. “We gave the board lots of information several weeks ago, and a couple board members needed time to digest them and ask some more questions, and they did and we got that information and they said okay we’re very comfortable moving forward over the five years.”
Sheehan says that the renewal was not due to the perfect success of the charter schools, but that there are ways to address where each school can approve. “Every school has its strength and every school has some areas that they need to work on. Some board members saw some areas that the charter school did need to work on, and they do. That was their discussion. For example math scores; what are they doing to improve their math scores because in some cases they’re lower. And then when we shared that they went ‘okay, as long as they’re working on it.’”
The importance of the checks by the school board is needed since the charters schools are an extension of the district, including with funding. “We are the school district of choices. We say what kind of program do you want, we either will modify one or make that happen for you at no cost. Everyone hears that they cost extra money. No it doesn’t. We take the dollar amount that we spend per child, take off some dollars for administrative support that we give them, and then they get that dollar amount. If they get more kids they get more money. If they get less kids they get less money. If we get more or less money from the state, which in the last several years we’ve received less, so do they.”
If anything, the charter schools were helped by families and students who attend them, as several dozen attended Tuesday's school board meeting to speak in favor of the school's reauthorization.