By Amanda McGregor
Local school employees and elected officials voiced opposition to a new charter school in Salem that would serve at-risk teens from Salem, Peabody and Lynn — calling it "mimicry," "segregationist" and "wholly inadequate," among other criticisms.
The Road to Success Charter High School is one of two proposed charter schools that were the subject of debate during a packed public hearing at the Lynn Housing Authority yesterday afternoon.
Road to Success would serve as many as 400 students in four populations: limited English-language students, those involved with the Department of Children and Families, homeless students, and pregnant or parenting teens.
"It would squander scarce dollars through a glaring duplication of efforts," Salem Schools Superintendent William Cameron testified during the hearing. "I urge the department in the strongest of terms not to recommend the Road to Success proposal to the board for approval."
Road to Success is one of seven proposed charter schools that made it to the final round of consideration for the state's 2009-2010 application cycle. The Board of Education is expected to vote on new charters in February, and gathered community input at yesterday's hearing.
Three founding members of Road to Success Charter High School spoke on its behalf during the hearing, including lead founder Robert Guinto, who touted his proposal's "learning achievement plans" for all students and tenets such as advisers for all students and 10-week sessions.
"They should have the benefit of having the best education possible," said Guinto, who lives in West Roxbury. "It's all about a team approach."
Roughly 35 people stepped to the podium and delivered testimony on the two proposed schools over the course of the hearing, which ran close to 21�Ñ2 hours.
Those who spoke in opposition to Road to Success included the school superintendents from Peabody, Salem and Lynn, as well as state Reps. John Keenan and Ted Speliotis, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Principal Edward Sapienza, school committee members from Salem and Peabody, and five other Peabody public school employees.
Michalene Hague, head of the English department at Peabody High, said the proposal is "founded upon a faulty premise" that Peabody is not serving the needs of its at-risk students. She said it doesn't address state education frameworks and that Peabody students don't have public transportation access to Salem, among other concerns.
"My biggest concern with this particular proposal," Hague said, "is its segregationist nature. It's taking a very specific group of students and isolating them from the mainstream, putting them together in a distant location."
Roughly a dozen parents from Lynn testified at the hearing, mainly in support of the other proposed charter school, Lynn Preparatory School, which would serve a maximum of 250 students in grades kindergarten through eight in Lynn.
Several Lynn parents also advocated in favor of Road to Success.
Keenan criticized the proposed charter high school for a lack of local buy-in.
"I have not heard from a single person involved with this charter school," said Keenan, who represents Salem. "I have not heard from a single parent in my constituency."
Edward Sacco was the lone Salem resident to testify on behalf of the proposal yesterday. He is one of the two dozen founding members of Road to Success Charter High School.
Sacco told the audience he is a parent of a senior at Salem High School who has excelled in the city's public school system — she plays two sports, has a 3.8 grade point average and has learned from "dedicated teachers," he said.
"I'm very happy with the education she has received," Sacco said. "They've done well for her, but you can't have everyone find that success."
Sacco said he is the longtime executive director of a nonprofit organization that places developmentally disabled people in group homes. He drew an analogy between deinstitutionalization and creating a new charter high school for the "population currently failing and not making it in the high school."
"Big places aren't right for everybody," Sacco said. "We need some alternatives. You can't have one size fits all."
Guinto defended the lack of community input from parents in Salem and Peabody.
"The constituency we're talking about doesn't usually pick up the phone and call you," Guinto said. "You have to reach out to them."
The moderator asked people to limit their comments to three minutes, but nearly everyone spoke beyond the allotted time after an alarm sounded.
Two members of the Board of Education attended the hearing and were seated at a table at the front of the room that faced the audience and the podium.
Board members Thomas Fortmann of Lexington and Michael D'Ortenzio Jr. of Wellesley (the student representative, who is a voting member) sat alongside Mary Street, director of the state Charter Schools Office, and Ruth Hersh, New Schools Development coordinator.
Speliotis, who represents part of Peabody, said he normally supports charter schools, but he urged the board not to grant a charter to Road to Success due to "the fiscal times we're in" and advocated funds for early intervention and early childhood programs instead.
"We need to redirect any small amount of funds we have to 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds," Speliotis said during the hearing.
Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, said Lynn and Salem are among the 10 percent lowest performing school districts in the state.
"We're creating new opportunities and new choices for parents in these lowest performing districts," Kenen said, "for parents who need those choices the most."
Cameron, the Salem superintendent, said the proposal is "unsound" and questioned the staffing levels and structure and the proposed school's ability to recruit students and adequately serve its ESL population.
Peabody School Committee member Beverley Dunne called the proposal "deficient."
