Battle between Manatee Charter School, school district resumes over missing data

Manatee Charter School could be forced to shut its doors at the end of next school year based on allegations that it has not followed through on a school improvement plan issued by the the School District of Manatee County.

A June 6 letter from school district attorney Mitch Teitelbaum to Ken Haiko, the chairman of Southwest Charter Foundation, and Bonnie Brett, the new principal at Manatee Charter, is the latest volley in a back-and-forth between the school district and the charter school. Teitelbaum’s letter states the charter school did not put student grades into the district’s grading software system by June 1.

“This constitutes a clear, material failure to comply with the School Improvement Plan and the contract,” Teitelbaum stated.

In February, the school district notified the 700-student charter school that it would be shut down at the end of the 2016-17 school year because of poor record-keeping and a chaotic learning environment. The charter school argued it had not received ample notification of the district’s concerns, and the district and charter ultimately agreed that the school could stay open for one more year as long as it followed the terms of a strict improvement plan.

Part of the improvement plan stated that data for all students leaving Manatee Charter at the end of the 2016-17 year had to be in the district’s student information system by June 1.

Shari McCartney, a lawyer with Tripp Scott law firm, which is representing Manatee Charter, argued in a letter dated June 6 that all the required data had been submitted and asked the district to notify them if anything was missing.

On Monday, Teitelbaum said the school was missing student data statutorily required by the state for eighth-grade graduation. He said data was missing from multiple categories with no clear pattern. Teitelbaum said district staff members were working with the school to get the issue resolved.

Manatee Charter spokeswoman Colleen Reynolds said the dispute over the grades was a simple issue with communication.

“Everyone is trying to do the right thing. Something is wrong with the way they are putting the grades in,” Reynolds said. “They think they are in compliance. It’s just a matter of making sure our systems all talk to each other correctly.”

According to the school improvement plan, Manatee Charter has 30 days to fix the problem. If the district and charter school cannot reach an agreement on the data requirements being satisfied, Teitelbaum said the next step would be a mediation hearing between the district and the charter.

This story was originally published June 12, 2017 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Battle between Manatee Charter School, school district resumes over missing data."