Federal Heights – On the heels of a dispute with one of the largest charter schools in the state, the Adams 12 Five Star school board is looking at revising its policies to mandate regular monitoring of its charter schools.
The possible changes come as the board of directors for The Pinnacle, a 1,300-student K-12 charter school in Federal Heights, prepares to discuss next week the fate of the school’s executive director, Margaret Summers.
Summers, along with her husband, Mel, The Pinnacle’s facilities manager, was placed on administrative leave last month after an investigation raised questions about the accounting of the The Pinnacle Building Corp., which owns the buildings that house the school. The Pinnacle’s lawyer has called that report’s claims “wholly inaccurate and not grounded in fact.”
The Adams 12 board has threatened to revoke The Pinnacle’s charter if it does not shape up.
At a question-and-answer session earlier this week with The Pinnacle staff, Adams 12 Superintendent Mike Paskewicz said the revised policies more clearly spell out what all charter schools must do.
“What we’re doing is identifying what we’re going to hold people accountable for,” he said.
Adams 12 has four charter schools and has the most students in charter schools of any district in the state – more than 4,000 students.
The district operates under a “policy governance” model, meaning the school board sets general goals and policies and leaves it to the superintendent to figure out the specifics. The proposed charter school rules make it clear that charters must follow all board policies, as well as the superintendent’s interpretation of those policies. Charters would be allowed to appeal to the Adams 12 school board any superintendent policies they feel are unfair.
Charters also would have to submit at least an annual report assessing their compliance.
Jim Griffin, executive director of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, said he has some reservations about giving the superintendent such authority over charters and said the charters should have had more initial input into the policies.
“The thing that worries me is this has come about at a time where they have a crisis or a problem,” Griffin said. “… It feels a little reactionary.”
The charter schools did get a chance to give input on the new policies at the Adams 12 board meeting Tuesday.
Dean DePaolo, a newly elected Pinnacle board member, said he likes the proposed changes.
“I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “If we had been doing that all along, we would have been self-monitoring and might have avoided some of the problems we’re dealing with now.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 303-655-7735 or jingold@denverpost.com.
