MOUNT JEWETT – The Mount Jewett Charter School Coalition
announced at a public meeting Monday that even if its charter
request is granted, they will not open until the start of the
2009-2010 school year.

Coalition president Skye Ognen made the announcement to a room
full of local residents at the Mount Jewett Firehall and explained
the decision was made by the board for numerous reasons.

“Though we are confident that we will be granted the charter, we
feel that we would not have enough time to provide the time of
educational environment that we are promising if we rush into
opening the school this year,” explained Ognen.

Wayne Wismar, business manager from the Tidioute Charter School,
took the podium to explain some of the major problems the Tidioute
coalition faced when they rushed into opening.

“A major drawback that we faced was that, because we had little
time to prepare before opening, we experienced numerous glitches in
our start-up which, in turn, created some affirmation to those who
didn’t want us there that we shouldn’t be there,” he said.

With the decision to push back the opening for a year, Ognen
explained the Coalition will take more time to prepare and attain
the charter the right way.

She explained that instead of continuing their appeal process
and attending a hearing before the Charter Appeals Board in
Harrisburg, the Coalition will instead attempt to fix the problems
the Kane Area School Board found in the original application and
then resubmit the application.

The Kane Area School District denied the original application in
February, citing many weaknesses in the plan for its decision.
Proposed chief executive officer of the charter school Tom Brown
outlined some of the major reasons.

The major reason for the application being denied was the
alternate building the Coalition chose as a school is St. Matthews
Church, which has offered its education wing to house the charter
school. The Coalition was forced to find an alternate location
since the Kane school district is refusing to sell them the former
elementary school building.

“The church has a cross on the front and many stained glass
biblical scenes which we are planning to cover during the school
day since it is illegal to expose the children to religious
influences,” said Brown.

Another reason cited by the Kane school district was the
Coalition did not include its government clearances in the original
application.

Ognen concluded the meeting by explaining an action plan for
what is to come in the process.

“We are hoping to have our charter approved by January or
February, whether Kane School District approves our application or
we have to file an appeal,” she said. “Then that would give us
seven or eight months to plan for our August opening.”

The proposed charter school would include a K-4 program which is
the equivalent of pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first through
fifth grades. Both Brown and Ognen pointed out that charter schools
are public schools and therefore there is no tuition cost and
transportation would be provided.