The PTA Council of Frederick County, Inc.

Action Alert
To: All PTA Members in Frederick County
From: PTA Council of Frederick County
Re: BOE Meeting on January 12, 2011

ISSUE: Reconsideration of the Classical Charter School Application

The newly elected Board of Education has voted to bring the Classical Charter School application back for
reconsideration at the regular meeting on Wednesday, January 12, 2011. This application was denied by the
previous BOE at the November 22, 2010 meeting. Reasons cited by the previous BoE for the denial were:
• Inappropriateness of the proposed location of this school.
• Curriculum was not substantially different from the current FCPS curriculum. Based on adoption of
the National Common Core standards, and the recent decision by the new BOE to eliminate TERC math
from the FCPS curriculum, the charter school curriculum is even less different than the other FCPS
schools.
• Cost associated with opening a new charter school during this time of budget crisis could have an
impact on existing FCPS programs. This school could add as much as $3.2 million to the FCPS
budget. The charter school applicant did not identify a source for these funds. Unless “new money” is
identified, the BoE will have to provide funds from their funding allocation, forcing a reduction in some
other funded program.

Why is this issue important to PTA

PTA supports the concept of charter schools as long as they are open to all students, comply with
all laws governing traditional public schools and are budget neutral. We have recently learned that charter
schools are NOT budget neutral in their first year of operation or if they phase-in enrollment. For the past two
years there has been much debate about how much money the BOE should be receiving to fund our schools.
There have been discussions about eliminating or reducing sports and other after school programs as well as talk
about reducing art and music offerings. Rumors of increasing class size and teacher lay-offs continue to circulate.
The possibility of not fully funding maintenance of effort (MOE) is very real since the majority of our newly
elected Board of County Commissioners and three of the new BOE members ran for office with the promise that
they would consider reducing MOE. Remember that maintenance of effort (MOE) is just the BOE receiving the
same amount of money next year to fund all of FCPS as it received this year; there is no increase to cover the cost
of educating additional students who may enroll in our schools; there is no increase to cover the cost of inflation,
or the higher costs for fuel for buses or heat/AC for the school buildings; there is no additional money for our
teachers, or bus drivers or other staff. MOE is simply the base funding necessary to continue most of the
programs that were in place this year.

What does this mean to you

If the BOE approves this charter school application, additional money must be found to fund its
opening. Over the past two years the BOE has been forced to make substantial cuts to balance their budget – cuts
that have already begun to have an impact on student education. In September, the last BOE approved another
charter school application, which will cost an additional $800,000.00 to open – money the BOE does not currently
have in its budget allocation. Add to that $800,000.00 the estimated $2 - $3 million plus to open this new charter
school. There is not that amount of “surplus” money anywhere in the BOE budget.
Given the number of cuts already put in place to balance past budgets, given the ever increasing
costs of operation for FCPS, given the already voiced view of the current BOCC that there will NOT be additional
money going to the BOE, one can only conclude that some other program (programs) will have to be reduced or
eliminated to find the money to open these two schools. Therefore, should the BOE decide to approve this
application, there must be a source of funding identified or current programs being used by our over 40,000 other
students will have to be reduced or eliminated. Any additional cuts, on top of what has already been enacted over
the past two years, will have significant adverse impacts on our students and their ability to receive a quality
education. All the options discussed last year in the “Tiers 2, 3, and 4” will most certainly come under
consideration again this year. Approving this application without first identifying to the public where
they plan to find the money to fund it is not the fiscally responsible thing to do.

What can you do

PTA Council will be at the hearing and speaking in opposition to approval of this application for the following
reasons:

• This application was evaluated according to the established process and the law.
• It was found to be deficient in numerous areas.
• To give this applicant another opportunity to address and fix any of the identified shortcomings is to
give more advantage to this applicant than has been granted to other applicants.
• It sets a precedent and could leave the BOE open to legal action from applicants denied in the past.
• NO source of funding has been identified.
• The proposed location of the school remains an issue – there are too many concerns with this site to
be listed here.
• The curriculum is not substantially different as is required by law.

We encourage all PTA members to do one of the following:

 Email your comments regarding this application to the BOE before the meeting.
 Attend the meeting to show support for those speaking ***
 Plan to speak yourself

*** The meeting is the regular BOE meeting on Wednesday, January 12, at 6:00 p.m. at the new central
office building. To speak you must sign up in advance (around 5:30). Comments are limited to 3 minutes.

Brad Young , Pres. – brad.young@fcps.org Katie Groth – Katie.groth@fcps.org

Donna Crook, VP – donnaC4boe@comcast.net April Miller – aprilf.miller@fcps.org

Angie Fish – angie.fish@fcps.org Jimmy Reeder – jimmy.reeder@fcps.org

Jean Smith – jean.smith@fcps.org

Thank you for your advocacy. When we all speak as one, our voice becomes so much louder! Please send
Council a copy of any email you send, so we can keep a record of our members’ advocacy efforts.

Sincerely,

Daphne Gabb, President

PTA Council of Frederick County

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