A group that won the right to turn Laupahoehoe School into a charter school is refusing to hold elections for a board to govern the school as promised in its application and as ordered by the Charter School Review Panel.

Many teachers and parents at the rural school, on a sea cliff midway between Hilo and Honokaa, say they feel they are being shut out of the process of local governance, which is supposed to be a hallmark of charter schools. Twenty of the school’s 21 teachers have signed a letter to the Board of Education asking to be transferred to other schools in the district.

"I am a community member, teacher and parent of three students at Laupahoehoe High and Elementary School," sixth-grade teacher Andrea Wilson told the Star-Advertiser. "The idea that my children, my students and my co-workers are somehow not stakeholders in our school and that we somehow should have no say and no representation in decisions that affect our school is ludicrous."

Efforts to turn the school into a charter gained traction in 2009 after the campus, which has 236 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, was added to a list of small schools being considered for closure. Some community members and parents, banding together as Save Our School, obtained a three-year, $450,000 federal grant and won a vote in favor of conversion in February 2010.

But as more information came out about the proposed budget for the charter school, opposition grew. In May the Charter School Review Panel denied the charter application, saying the plan was not financially viable and did not have enough support.

"When the panel was reviewing the application, it became clear to us that a large majority of the current staff were opposed or had concerns about the conversion," said panel Chairman Carl Takamura. "We did strongly recommend to the applicant group a number of times that it might be a good idea to step back and re-engage with the school staff. Our concern was what the impact would be on the students, and that continues to be a primary concern."

Instead, the applicants appealed to the newly appointed Board of Education. In a surprise move, the board overruled the panel and granted the charter Aug. 3 after an unpublicized meeting for which no agenda or minutes were posted, where only the applicants were invited to speak. The board did not have to abide by the Sunshine Law because it was acting as an "adjudicatory body," according to Liann Ebesugawa, executive director.

In its written decision, the board said the panel’s concerns were not substantiated and did not reflect the quality of the application. It also concluded that the law does not require approval of the majority of the staff members to convert a school into a charter.

The move sparked an uproar in Laupahoehoe. Teachers and parents decided to run for the new charter school’s governing board, some hoping to hand the charter back to the state and continue as a regular public school, said Bob Beekman, a faculty representative. Under state law each stakeholder group — including parents, teachers, staff, students and the community — has the right to elect its representatives to that board. But no elections are under way.

"They know that if they did the elections now, they are not going to win," said Nora Pajimola, a Laupahoehoe alumna who has three children at the school. "That’s why they are trying to postpone it."

In applying for a charter, the Laupahoehoe Interim Local School Board said it would hold elections in September 2011 to create a permanent board to govern the school, set to convert in August 2012. After the charter was granted, it pushed the date back to November. Now it says it intends to hold the vote on or before Sept. 30, 2012, after it opens as a charter school.

Nicolette Hubbard, president of the interim local school board, wrote to the panel on Oct. 24 that the earlier date was "legally impossible," adding, "The election cannot lawfully occur until the eligible voters and candidates are determined. This determination cannot be made until after the parents, teachers and staff of the charter school are identified."

The Charter School Review Panel, however, disagrees, saying the stakeholders in a conversion charter school are the current parents, staff and students. It is holding the interim board to its original commitment to hold elections this fall and warned that if it does not, the panel could move to revoke the charter or refuse to allow the charter school to open. On Oct. 14 the panel directed that elections be held by Nov. 21.

Instead, the interim board intends to appeal again to the Board of Education, arguing that the panel overstepped its authority, according to Steven Strauss, a lawyer who just joined the interim board Sept. 27 and is now the only member authorized to speak to the press.

"We will be going to the Board of Education and expect them to correct the Charter School Review Panel," he said. "There are some issues with regard to the panel, whether they have the authority to take some of the positions they have, whether the Laupahoehoe Community Public Charter School is in a contractual relationship with them."

Meanwhile, teachers at the school are alarmed that they will lose their jobs and tenure with the Department of Education in the charter conversion and will have to apply as new hires at other public schools, said Carol Dodson, who has taught at Laupahoehoe for eight years.

Teachers who want to stay at the charter school must apply for jobs there.

"We are writing to request your immediate action to prevent 21 public school teachers from being involuntarily terminated by the DOE," the teachers wrote in their Oct. 31 letter to the Board of Education. "We have worked hard for the past few years to improve Laupahoehoe School and have been successful. … We want the DOE to place us in other DOE positions within our own Hilo-Waiakea-Laupahoehoe District."

Asked how the school, which was founded in 1883, will function if virtually all of its teachers abandon ship, Strauss said, "These are collective bargaining issues that are going to be resolved."

"We’re interested in teachers that want to teach at the school," Strauss added.

Earlier this year, Laupahoehoe’s principal, James Denight, urged the panel to reject the charter conversion, saying strong majorities of staff and teachers oppose it. He projected the charter school budget would have an annual shortfall of up to $600,000. Charters receive per-pupil funds from the state but no state money for things like athletics and school buses, which are important to the rural community.

"When they proposed the charter, we were failing, but without the charter’s help we came out of restructuring and we’re doing well," said Pajimola, the parent who organized a meeting that drew 150 people in September. "We’re in good standing academically for the past two or three years. Our sports program has expanded to include intermediate and elementary sports. They have robotics now. There are a lot of good things going on, so why would we want to change it?"

Other public schools that have converted to charter status, such as Waimea Middle School on Hawaii island and Kualapuu School on Molokai, had strong support from their staffs. They also had a big financial boost from Kamehameha Schools, which provides about $1,500 annually per student to charter schools with high Hawaiian enrollment, money that would not be available to Laupahoehoe.

"When Waimea converted, state funding was dramatically higher than it is now," said John Colson, principal of Waimea Middle. "You could make ends meet. With the current funding, it makes it very difficult."

"We were unified when we made the move," Colson added. "The faculty were 100 percent behind this, and that’s what drives it. If your faculty aren’t behind it, it’s a real challenge."