Charter school must shape up or dissolve

Advocates will say that the birth of the charter school movement in Hawaii, while belated, was a welcome event. And they’d be right. Charter schools offer, at least in theory, the opportunity for public school families to have access to a range of educational approaches and innovations.

In practice, the initial experience was uneven, with varying success rates in academic outcomes and basic financial sustainability. That was the impetus for reforms to the public charter school system in more recent years, a restructuring, still in its fledgling stage, aimed at improving oversight.

So the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission, one of the products of that reform, is to be applauded for taking what is a difficult step. Halau Lokahi Public Charter School, which is struggling under significant debt, has been put on notice that it must implement a clean sweep of its leadership if it is to remain open.

It is really the only way the commission can fulfill its stewardship responsibility over the expenditure of state school funds and give parents the information and the time they need to make long-term educational decisions for their children.

Halau Lokahi is one of the state’s 33 public charter schools, and one of the numerous campuses with a Hawaiian-focused program. The commission has learned that the school, which opened in 2001, has accrued a debt of $417,000 — sizeable, considering its diminishing enrollment, 169 students at last count.

Under a newly enacted state law, a charter school must have a contract by July 1 in order to be open for the new school year, set to start Aug. 19. The offer approved by the commission stipulates that Halau Lokahi’s next contract is contingent on new leadership at the school.

This is essentially the commission’s no-confidence vote on the fiscal management provided by the current leadership. And there is solid basis for that verdict, given that the school stopped paying its rent in February and its teachers on June 5.

There is still a chance for the school to regroup and remain open, but the odds are fairly long.

According to the motion approved by the commission, the current board must "obtain the resignation of the current school director," Laara Allbrett, who heads a staff of 23, including five members of her immediate family.

That staffing has remained relatively steady, despite dropping enrollment, which cut the school’s income by one-fifth. Funding comprises the roughly $6,000 per pupil in state funds, $1,500 per student from Kamehameha Schools and about $400 per Hawaiian student from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs

The school also must commit to the implementation of a financial plan that assumes an enrollment of 225 and the repayment of debt. And the governing board must itself step down upon the appointment of a new board by the commission.

"If the current leadership can’t accept that, it sends a message about whether this is really for the kids and the families," Tom Hutton, the commission’s executive director, rightly observed.

He also said the commission staff would conduct further inquiries into the school’s fiscal management and look into ways to improve the commission’s oversight practices, going forward.

This is a bitter pill to swallow, and many Halau Lokahi parents, who held a meeting this week, still fervently hope to keep together. But to allow the school to continue without a complete overhaul is unsupportable by the taxpayers and unfair to every other student in the charter school system.

If anything good comes from this episode, it would be guidance that could ensure the more optimal use of public and private funds for the benefit of students across the state. That has to be the bottom line.