The administration of the St. Paul public schools wants to discontinue its sponsorship of six charter schools to save money and to avoid greater requirements of a new state law on sponsors.
"I believe it is time for us to get out of the business of sponsoring charter schools," said schools Superintendent Valeria Silva. Her comments came as she gave reasons at a school board meeting Tuesday night for discontinuing charter school sponsorship and laid out a plan for disengaging the district from the charter schools.
The new law places greater responsibilities on charter school sponsors and fails to give them the authority to step in and correct problems at schools they sponsor, Silva said.
The board approved a measure renewing sponsorship of two of the charter schools -- Community of Peace and New Spirit -- but for only one year. After that, the district wants to discontinue sponsoring all six.
The charter schools St. Paul sponsors have 1,700 students. The other schools are Face to Face Academy, Achieve Language Academy, Twin Cities Academy and Twin Cities Academy High School.
School board members said they will continue a broader discussion about the district's charter school sponsorship before making a final decision.
"We hope they will reconsider," said Nancy Dana, executive director of New Spirit, which has been sponsored by St. Paul for 12 years. She said the school in the Frogtown neighborhood has had an "outstanding relationship" with the school district.
Dana also said the school district leadership may not be fully informed about the strong oversight the district has over New Spirit, or of avenues that would allow the district to recoup more of its management costs under the new law.
