Mifflinburg School Board Stacks the Deck Against Charter Approval

                                                   CHARTER SCHOOL ALERT

The proposed New Berlin Charter School in Pennsylvania's Union County is facing roadblocks in its efforts to gain a charter to operate from the Mifflinburg Area School District.  New Berlin filed its charter application by the Commonwealth's November 15, 2011 deadline.  The founders envision 100 students in kindergarten through fourth grade and 40 students have pre-enrolled in the charter school.

The Mifflinburg Area School Superintendent, Dan Lichtel, is not impressed with the school's application.  Lichtel has been quoted as saying that New Berlin lacks a curriculum, has not identified staff, has no collateral,and no plans for special-needs students or for student achievement.  To be sure, this is the first charter application in the Mifflinburg area and Lichtel may not appreciate that New Berlin is not able to hire teachers or enroll children until the charter is granted by the School District.  Or perhaps he is aware of the proposed school's limited ability to provide information during the application process and instead is focused on cutting the School District $1.3 million deficit.  The timing is seemingly not right for, as Lichtel put it, New Berlin Charter School's "experiment."

Lesson for Trustees:  Trustees need to be mindful of the application process and provide as much information as possible when making the initial filing with the charter authorizer.  In this time of budget uncertainty and fiscal austerity, however, that may not be enough.  Authorizers also need to know that the proposed charter has the support of a large portion of the community.  The loud voice of the community seems to be the real check on the power of the school district authorizers to do their job of evaluating charter school applications fairly.  Charter trustees would be wise to do what they can to develop public support in advance of filing a charter application or for seeking charter renewal.


This Charter School Alert was authored by Eric L. Silberstein, an attorney with Salvo Rogers & Elinski in Blue Bell, PA.  Mr. Silberstein, a member of Salvo Rogers & Elinski's Corporate and Real Estate Groups, has practiced law for 20 years and works closely with charter boards and administrators on governance, financing, special education, real estate, charter renewals and other charter matters.  Mr. Silberstein is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.  He can be reached at (215) 653-0110 or esilberstein@salvorogers.com.  Salvo Rogers is a boutique law firm started in 1988 that is committed to providing high quality, personal service and cost effectiveness to clients pursuing business transactions, commercial real estate matters, and trusts and estates planning.

Please continue to follow other Pennsylvania charter school news of interest posted on my blog, "PA Charter School Law Forum:" pacharterlawforum.blogspot.com.  Your comments and suggestions are welcome.