Public comments on the Seven Oaks Charter School
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Residents of Bloomington and Ellettsville packed the basement meeting room at the Holiday Inn Express on November 4, 2015, for the third public hearing in a year on a proposed charter for Seven Oaks Classical School. After being turned down twice by the Indiana Charter School Board (well, technically once--the second time they withdrew their application at the last minute), Seven Oaks founders are seeking approval through Grace College, a private college and seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana.
Grace was required by statute to hold this public hearing. Tim Ziebarth of their Office of Charter was there, as was a lawyer from a firm hired by Grace--but not a single member of the Grace College board of trustees, or of Grace's application review committee, was present to hear in person what Monroe County citizens had to say. The lawyer told us that her written notes and audio of the event will be made available to Grace's board members, who are responsible for deciding whether or not to authorize a charter for Seven Oaks. |
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Here's what some community members said in opposition to Seven Oaks:
Judith DeMuth
For the 2015-2016 school year the Monroe County Community School Corporation will receive $5,612.00 per student...Losing 200 students to a charter school would result in a decrease in 2015-2016 funding of $1,122,400, or the equivalent of the salaries and benefits for 23 teachers with a master’s degree and 2 years of teaching experience.
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Lucy Fischman
If you authorize Seven Oaks, we will expect you, as authorizing board members, to be present in our community, to be responsive to county taxpayers’ concerns and to serve our students as well as MCCSC does. Will you really be able to do that?
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Mike Wilcox
RBBCSC is an incredibly strong school corporation because of our community's educational resources, energy, talent, and people power in the form of teachers, students, and parents contributing to our school corporation identity, culture, direction, and growth.
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Cathy Fuentes-RohwerWe worked as a community to pass a referendum supporting all of these experiences. Now here comes this small group of people who will basically take away some of these choices for my kids and the 10,000 others in our public school community so that they can have this niche school they feel that they need.
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Penny Githens
Approximately 1 in 6 students in Indiana is a special education student. If Seven Oaks enrolls 400 students, they should be planning for the education of 67 special education students...
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Katie Russell
I am a preservice teacher...The particular population of children I work with come from primarily low income families and depend greatly on the services the school offers, such as transportation, free meals, counseling from social workers...
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Carl Pearson
It is abundantly evident that what they hope to accomplish is not a well-rounded education founded upon the Western tradition, but a reactionary conservative alternative to mainstream public education.
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Janet Stake
[W]hy should you approve the use of our tax dollars so Hillsdale College, a private college in Michigan, can greatly influence the curriculum and instruction of our local children?
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Alex Tanford
They say they will teach civic virtue and democracy, but you can’t teach civic virtue by damaging the public schools and isolating your children from the community.
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Todd Lare
Just over a year ago, our organization made an offer on Eagle’s Landing, the building proposed for this charter school...Our project subsequently fell through due to a number of reasons, including the extensive amount of renovation required to make the facility useable and safe.
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Laura Mojonnier
Our local public schools are doing a great job! In all of the schools that I’ve worked in, I’ve seen teachers, administrators, and other staff that are fully devoted to the education their students, including their intellectual, social, and moral development.
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Jenny Robinson
This is essentially the same application that I’ve seen twice before...[it] has not been modified to respond to concerns about discipline policy, transportation, or plans for serving intellectually gifted students.
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Sue Wanzer
First, except for teaching Greek and Latin in elementary school, the only...difference in this school is that it will serve to segregate our community with its exclusive standards which will be discriminatory to many students.
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