Pocono News Section

School Claims School District is Racist

School Claims School District is Racist - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 04:04AM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Wednesday June 02 2010
TOBYHANNA, MONROE COUNTY - A Pocono school claims the Pocono Mountain School District is racist.

The Pocono Mountain Charter School filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in Federal Court this morning.

Michelle Ferguson said the Pocono mountain Charter school changed her son's life. The eleventh grader had discipline and education problems in the Pocono Mountain School District. The boy's uncle, Anthony Scott, told Eyewitness News when he transferred to the charter school everything changed. He explained, "When he got here all of a sudden he started accelerating in all of his classes."

So the family - and many others are angry the Pocono Mountain School District wants to revoke this school's charter. Parent Molli Rivera said,"I would be devastated if they revoked the charter."

The school district has been holding hearings about removing this school's charter for more than a year. It claims the charter school is not educating students properly and mixing religion with education.

But parents and the charter school directors believe it's a racist move because most students here are minorities.

Attorneys point out that the district's other charter school - Evergreen - has less minority students and white management. It hasn't had any problems.

Judith Gran the attorney for the parents said, "They have imposed many more restrictions on this school's charter than they did on Evergreen."

In addition - attorneys claim the district is targeting the school because another minority charter school failed in this district. The Pocono MountainSchool of Excellence was shut down because of financial misdeeds.

Daniel Fennick the attorney for the charter school said,"The school district is saying well 'we don't want another Pocono Mountain School of Excellence - of course nobody does - so we're going to make the minority owned school do all kinds of special things to prevent that but we're not going to make the white run school do all kinds of things to prevent that.'"

The school district denies these claims. This is the district's statement:

We have yet to see documentation on the filing of any such suit; however, the claims outlined in the Pocono Mountain Charter School news release are completely unfounded, outrageous and designed to i nflame the public. This appears to be another attempt by the Pocono Mountain Charter School to try and pressure the District into stopping the revocation hearing process.

From the start, the Pocono Mountain Charter School has tried to use the court system to delay or stop the revocation hearing process. Their attorneys failed in their previous attempts in both the Monroe County Court and the Commonwealth Court to stop the hearings. We were threatened months ago that if we didnt settle, the Charter School would file some type of discrimination suit against the District. Now, when we were hoping to finish the hearings next week, it appears that the Charter School is attempting to use the Federal Court system to try and stop the hearings and avoid possible accountability.

Let me be very clear about the revocation process and why this District entered into such a process. This is not now, nor has it ever been about discrimination. First, we are very concerned that large amounts of tax dollars that should be going to provide for the students attending the Charter School are not being spent on the students. Second, we are very concerned that the most vulnerable students, special needs students, were improperly removed from special education and were denied the services they needed to succeed. Those concerns have only increased based on the evidence and testimony presented by both sides throughout the hearing process. There are startling similarities in the situation we face here and the numerous ongoing investigations into many Charter Schools in the Philadelphia area.

To claim that Pocono Mountain School District displays a history of discrimination because of the closure of a minority-run charter school, the Pocono School of Excellence, shows a complete disregard of the facts. The Pocono School of Excellence founders were convicted in court for embezzling tax-dollars. They took the money intended to help educate children and spent that money on their own lavish lifestyle. It was a criminal matter, not discrimination, as implied.

Another complete disregard of the facts is the Charter Schools continued claims that the Charter School is outperforming the Pocono Mountain School District academically. That is simply not true and not supported by the facts released by the state. The Charter School made Adequate Yearly Progress. However, representatives of the Charter School continue to misrepresent exactly what that means. The Charter School is not outperforming the students at Pocono Mountain School District. The overall proficiency levels of the students attending the Pocono Mountain Charter School are lower than in any school in Pocono Mountain School District and in any school in the entire Monroe County.

The Pocono Mountain Charter School had lawyers present during the charter renewal process in 2006, lawyers who helped them negotiate the terms and conditions of the charter. They signed the charter indicating their agreement to the conditions listed in that charter. The school has operated as a public school entity under that charter since 2006. Now, when we are nearing the end of the revocation hearings, representatives of the Charter School are claiming discrimination and civil rights violations. This is simply another attempt by representatives of the Charter School to disrupt the hearing process and to avoid possible accountability.