There were several discussions that left me troubled as I left the Feb. 16th Committee of the Whole Meeting
Troubling discussion # 1. Plan by Richmond Heights School DIstrict (RHSD) to Operate Conversion Schools inside the Mayfield City School District.
Dori Mittinger, the RHSD business manager, was not on the agenda, but she was allowed to address council at the request of Mayor Coleman.
Mittinger informed council that the RHSD was planning to open up three “conversion” schools. She was at the COW meeting, she said, because she was hoping to use the old church building on the city hall property for one of those schools.
What is a conversion school? Basically it’s a charter school that is created by, and from, a public school system.
According to Ohio Administrative Regulation § 3301-102-02(F): "Conversion school" means a community (aka charter) school created by converting all or a portion of an existing traditional public school to a community school.”
RHSD wants to open 3 conversion schools----a gifted and talented school (grades 2-8), a college prep school, and an all-male "alternative" school. All of the schools will be application based----which will allow the school operators to handpick the students for each school. While RHSD kids will have "first preference" in applying, Mittinger made no promises as to how many RHSD students would attend each school.
In fact, Mittinger was unclear about many details---except for financial ones. Bottom line, RHSD stands to get a lot more funding by operating conversion schools because:
- The state has educational grants available to establish charter/conversion schools. RHSD is planning to apply for a $ 450,000 startup grant from the state (March 15th deadline).
- Right now the state gives RHSD around $1,300 per pupil for each student that attends the public school. In contrast, the state will pay RHSD at least $ 5,718 per pupil in 2010 for each charter/conversion school student.
Mittinger was frank in acknowledging that RHSD hopes to draw students from other school districts to attend the conversion schools (hence, I suppose, the interest in locating at least one of the schools in Highland Heights). Significantly, the $ 5,718 per pupil payment that RHSD would receive for each nonresident student would be deducted from the funds that the students’ home school districts receive from the state.
That means a loss of $ 5,718 in revenue for every Mayfield student that attends one of the proposed RHSD conversion schools.
In fact, the RHSD School Board President confirmed that the conversion school plan is being driven by financial concerns rather than curriculum needs. He told the Sun Messenger this week that, "We have been discussing ways to receive additional funding... Every journey starts with a first step and this is the first step."
From where I sit it certainly looks like RHSD's financial plan depends entirely on using the conversion schools to poach students and revenue from surrounding school districts.
Very troubling indeed.
To read more about “community” and “conversion” schools, go to: http://education.ohio.gov/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=662
end part one
