A new charter school set to open this fall in Florence is sparking concerns in the community. Formal complaints have been filed against Whitmore Classical Academy, and the Siuslaw School District superintendent has also raised questions.
Will Yurman is a University of Oregon Journalism Associate Professor and reports on the Florence Area for his website, West of the Tunnel.
Rachael McDonald: Will, you wrote about the controversy surrounding Whitmore Classical Academy. First of all, would you tell us about the new yet-to-open charter school?
Will Yurman: Sure, I'm happy to. Whitmore Classical Academy is scheduled to open this fall as a K through 3, and then they would add a grade each year until they end up as a K through 8. And they are a public charter school, which means they get funding from the state and they have to follow state guidelines and all those good things. They're organized around what they call a classical curriculum, which is a kind of a formal curriculum that's been around for quite a while. And they're motivated by what they see as sort of failures in the public school system. So, that's their goal. And as you mentioned, there have been some complaints and some issues between the charter school and the district itself as well.
McDonald: So, you report that at least three Florence residents filed complaints about the school. What are their concerns?
Yurman: So, two people that I know of, two residents have filed complaints with the state, and then three formal complaints have been sent to the district and I believe also to the charter school as they're supposed to. And they really fall into two buckets. One of them is this concern over what they call religious entanglement. So, as a public school, they're required to be non-religious, and some of the complaints tie them to some other organizations that have a religious affiliation. And then there's a separate set of complaints about the curriculum itself that it does not align properly with state guidelines. And so there's a debate going on about that.
McDonald: And is that what the superintendent has brought up?
Yurman: Yeah, so the superintendent has focused primarily on those curriculum issues. The state is addressing at least one of the complaints. It hasn't decided whether it's going to address the other complaint. The superintendent believes that the district, as the sponsoring school district, has a legal responsibility to make sure the curriculum aligns properly with the state. The charter school argues that that's up to the charter school to make sure it aligns with the state. So that's part of the controversy, but because residents complained to the district, the district decided, at this last school board meeting, to create a nine-person committee to review the curriculum of the charter school.
McDonald: And what does the charter school say about the complaints and concerns from the community?
Yurman: They've addressed them case by case. They argue that they're doing everything they're supposed to, that they've had their curriculum reviewed by an outside person, that they've complied with state laws, that they've done everything they're supposed to, and they feel pretty confident that they're, I would say very confident, that their curriculum aligns with state guidelines. The charter has been controversial in the community and I think they see some of the complaints as an outgrowth of more political social issues rather than specific to the curriculum. So, that would be, I think, their point of view.
McDonald: What's next in the process?
Yurman: So the state took one of the complaints on and assigned an investigator. They haven't yet, as far as I know, ruled on whether they're going to investigate the second complaint, and that has a series of state steps that they would go through to investigate whether there was any reason to do anything about it. The district, at their board meeting, approved the formation of this committee, and their own rules give them 45 days to reach a verdict. So they'll form this committee. They'll go step by step through the charter's curriculum and make sure that it's aligning properly with state regulations. So, they're not judging whether the curriculum is appropriate. That's fine. They're making sure that it's being basically implemented properly. That's the concern of the superintendent.
And then the board voted as well to approve that.
McDonald: Well, I really appreciate you sharing this situation. Is there anything else you think is important to mention?
Yurman: I mean, I think that the issue of education is so important that I think it's worth people paying attention. You know, the charter school is a public school. Public schools are funded by state tax dollars, you know, they have to follow state guidelines, and they were created as a way to sort of experiment. So, that's the argument for a charter school. And then on the other side many people in the community just feel like we're a small school district and worry about sort of dividing resources. And then there are also political and social and all sorts of other things going on.
It's a complicated story for sure. But I think in the next few weeks or possibly a few months, this will all kind of get resolved, and presumably the school will be able to open in the fall or make changes so they can open in the fall.
Bill Yurman is a University of Oregon Journalism Professor who writes about the Florence area on his website: West of the Tunnel.
