Board of Education Action Meeting: February 29, 2024
by Lisa Haver
In a 6-3 vote, the Board of Education voted to deny Global Leadership Academy’s application for a charter high school. Board members cited numerous reasons for their votes, including the substandard proposed curriculum and the questionable affiliations with charter management organizations and legal firms. Two board members cited plummeting academic scores at GLA’s Renaissance charter, Huey Elementary. President Reginald Streater cited GLA’s failure to remedy an issue that the board cited in its previous denial–the organization’s claims that it was GLA but not really part of GLA. As APPS’ Deb Grill said in her report about GLA CEO Naomi Johnson-Booker’s claim of non-affiliation: “That might be true if one doesn’t count the name, the academic model, the relationship with business consultants Charter Choices, and her position as CEO of GLACS.” Grill, in her testimony, reminded the board that over half of the city’s charter schools are under-enrolled, thus there is no need for any new charter school.
The consideration of even one application for a new charter costs the district dearly in time and money. Two hearings preceded this decision. The Charter School Office must conduct an in-depth evaluation of the application and review hundreds of pages of attachments. CSO Director Peng Chao gives presentations to the board at several points in the 6-month process. At this meeting, Chao gave another extensive presentation on the GLA application, followed by a lengthy question-and -answer session from the board. In addition, the board’s deliberations just before the vote took over half an hour, and fourteen of the thirty approved speakers addressed this one topic. Three elected officials spoke in support of the GLA application.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 