Anoka charter school's expansion plan denied again

Cygnus Academy in Anoka is miffed because its sponsoring agency has thwarted its plans to expand for two years and recently threatened to revoke the 3-year-old school's charter if student test scores don't improve.

The sponsor, Friends of Education (FOE), of Wayzata, opposes the proposed addition of grades 9-12. That means 40 eighth-graders who hoped to stay must find a new school, said Cygnus executive director Lyle Taipale.

FOE director Beth Topoluk said Cygnus needs more than desire to expand: It must demonstrate solid student performance. Taipale counters that FOE has unfairly compared Cygnus test results with those of other schools, while national tests show Cygnus students have improved each year.

"We make no apologies for holding schools accountable," Topoluk said. "These are public [charter] schools getting public dollars. They have a responsibility to be a proper custodian of the public's money."

Cygnus board chair John Christoffel wrote FOE chairman William Cooper this spring and asked for a meeting about FOE's continuing objections to the school's expansion.

Cooper shot back a letter this month noting the school's 2008 math and reading state test scores fell significantly behind nearby Sandburg Middle School in Anoka and below Friends' performance standards for the 14 other charter schools it sponsored last year.

"We do not support expansion with performance like that," wrote Cooper, who is also chairman of TCF Financial. He added that the school charter will be revoked if "2009 academic performance is not substantially improved...."

Taipale, a longtime educator with a doctorate in education policy, was brought in after the school's rocky first year, during which his predecessor was fired and many board members resigned. Taipale has worked in St. Paul alternative schools and said he expanded Sobriety High School in St. Paul from two to five locations before coming to Cygnus in mid-2007. He said he was accustomed to friendly relations with Sobriety High's sponsor, but Friends has been a harsh, unreasonable critic.

"They are saying we are a rotten school but our data, parents and staff say, wait a minute, that's not true," Taipale said.

Taipale noted enrollment has grown by more than 10 percent each year to 118 students and 10 teachers this year. He said the number of mentally handicapped students, who perform less well on state tests, has doubled to about 24 percent this year. He displayed petitions for expansion signed by a large majority of Cygnus students and their parents. He said this year attendance averaged 97 percent, and discipline issues are minor, like occasional pushing.

"This school is a good fit for a lot of kids," said Lisa Lappen, a member of the parent advisory committee whose son is finishing eighth grade this spring. Lappen said she has done annual parent surveys for all three years that found high parent satisfaction with student learning.

"It is a happy, safe place to be where they [students] think they can learn," she said.

"There are kids that would like to go here next year," Alex, 14, said outside his civics classroom. He said his history teacher "helps connect history to what is happening today."

But Topoluk is more concerned about lackluster test scores than student or parent accolades. She e-mailed Cygnus officials that Friends was "alarmed" that Northwest Evaluation Association tests showed poor growth for the academy's third-year students from December 2007 to September 2008.

Taipale said a fair assessment would compare the same time of year for both Northwest tests. He said that the tests also show his students improved each year so that all eighth-graders met or exceeded Northwest national norms in math and reading.

Friends also has criticized the academy's finances, after the 2008 audit by MMKR Accountants of Minneapolis. The audit made three findings, including unorganized financial records and a late report, both mishandled by its accountant service, said auditor James Eichten. He said such findings are common for charter schools. The state Education Department was satisfied with the audit's corrective action plan, said spokeswoman Christine Dufour.

Taipale says the school is exploring potential new sponsors.

"It's like the little engine that could," he said. "It's trying to get going."