By: Andrew Coen
Community activists in the beachfront community have organized efforts to explore other possibilities for their children, one of which is the creation of a charter school in the village.
Atlantic Beach Mayor Stephen Mahler, who expressed a desire to explore other school options for his community after district voters defeated the proposed 2003-04 budget, invited Gerry Vazquez, founder and president of the New York Charter School Resource Center (NYCRC), to be a guest speaker at Monday night's village board meeting at Village Hall, which attracted a standing-room-only crowd of residents from all over the district.
According to the Web site www.uscharterschools.org, charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with freedom from many of the regulations governing traditional public schools.
If parents were to pursue the establishment of a charter school, they would set up the year-long application process through the NYCRC, according to Vazquez. Money for charter schools comes from a combination of state aid, tuition paid by residents who support the school and federal money set aside for the charter school program, he said. According to Vazquez, operating a charter school is not as expensive per pupil as a public school system with roughly 70 percent of the money a district spends per student earmarked for the school. In addition to paying for the charter school, the parents would have to continue to pay school taxes for District 15.
While the push for alternatives to District 15 schools is coming from parents in Atlantic Beach, if a charter school were to be established there, it would be required to include students from the entire district and outside the school system if seats were available, according to Vazquez.
Of 3,400 charter schools nationwide, 69 currently operate in New York, with three on Long Island: Roosevelt, Riverhead and East Hampton. While many of these schools cater to specific needs or programs, parents who spoke at Monday's meeting emphasized to Vazquez that they would like to see an alternative to the public-school system in District 15 established if possible. "There is nothing to prevent this," said Vazquez, who pointed out that there are a few comprehensive, kindergarten-through-12th grade charter schools in the U.S.
According to Atlantic Beach Deputy Mayor Janice Goorland, parents grew extremely upset with the Lawrence school district when the school board closed the Number One School in June as part of a consolidation plan to save the district money. The elementary school, just over the Atlantic Beach Bridge on Central Avenue in Lawrence, served as the home school for all Atlantic Beach students, but once the building was closed, they, along with the rest of the school's students, were moved to the Number Six School in Woodmere.
"Atlantic Beach felt that they were dealt with in a bad way," Goorland said of the district's decision to close the Number One School and send children farther away.
Mahler said that one way for parents to set up a charter school quickly would be to see if District 15 would set aside the now-closed school, but according to Vazquez, there is no law that would require the district to do so. Mahler also suggested bringing an Article 78 case against the district to urge officials to set aside the school building for a charter school, but Vazquez said he has never heard of such a case.
According to Mahler, the possibility of either moving the students into the Long Beach school district, which is another option the village is exploring, or starting an Atlantic Beach school district is unlikely, since after studying those possibilities, he determined that the process of seceding from District 15 would be a complex one. "It seems virtually impossible," Mahler said after Monday's meeting. "It seems absolutely impossible to reorganize a school district."
According to the state Department of Education, in order to reorganize a school district, both the superintendent and the school board need to consent. "That is not going to happen," said Mahler.
"I think it's premature for me to make any comment about it at this point," Long Beach Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg said of the possibility of his district taking on students from Atlantic Beach.
"I feel horrible for them," Lynn Gergen, Long Beach PTA co-president, said of the state of the Lawrence school district and Atlantic Beach residents.
Gergen said that including students from the western edge of the barrier island would be a plus for the Long Beach district, but whether it is logistically possible needs to be studied further. "I don't think there is anything negative to say about Atlantic Beach kids coming into Long Beach schools," she said. "It's just a question of if it's physically possible, and the legalities of such a move. The size of the classes is the only concern I would have."
According to Gergen, the schools in Long Beach are currently at or near full capacity.
Longtime Atlantic Beach resident Marvin Licht approached Mahler after the meeting to encourage him to continue studying the possibility of joining the Long Beach district, and offered his assistance. "The mayor may say it's impossible, but I say anything is possible," said Licht, who has no children in District 15 schools but is very supportive of the local public schools. "I think we have to get out of this school district. I'm sick of paying these high school taxes and having us support the budget, and then have people in the other parts of the district vote it down."
In recent school elections, Atlantic Beach residents have voted overwhelmingly to support the proposed budgets, but they have been rejected by large numbers of voters in Lawrence and Woodmere. Voters in Atlantic Beach cast 539 yes votes and only 186 no votes on the proposed $87 million budget last May, but the proposition still failed by nearly 1,000 votes.
"[The rest of the district] has already taken so much, so we have to explore other options for our children before we end up just being a piece of the pie," said Goorland.
"Our school district is going downhill, so we should look at other options," Atlantic Beach resident and District 15 parent Richard Matalewicz said before the meeting.
"I can understand people wanting to explore that, but I think they are going to be in for a surprise," Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons said of the complex situation that would await Atlantic Beach parents who want to secede from District 15. "To compete with a school system like Lawrence is quite a task."
"It's always good to explore other options, but I think they are going to be surprised," said District 15 school board President Kathy Raquet.
"If there are some people that want to pursue [a charter school], we are willing to come meet with you," Vazquez said at the meeting.
According to Vazquez, it is recommended that groups interested in setting up charter schools organize a planning team, which would include educators, lawyers and someone with a knowledge of finance, to start the process.
Goorland emphasized that the interested parents are in the beginning stages of their study, and that it will take time to determine what moves are possible for the village. "We are at ground level, but it would not be prudent for us not to look at what the options are," said Goorland. "This isn't going to be an easy issue, but that's why we want to explore it."
Comments about this story? ACoen@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
