PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The School District of Philadelphia is preparing to take back control of two charter schools whose non-renewals were upheld by a state panel last month.
It was six years ago when the district’s Charter Schools Office recommended that charters for ASPIRA Olney High School and ASPIRA Stetson Middle School not be renewed for academic and financial reasons. Last month, the state Charter Appeals Board upheld the school board’s 2019 vote not to renew the charters, clearing the way for the schools to return to district control this fall.
“Without even knowing what the status was going to be of the vote, we’ve been planning for a very long time what this transition will look like,” said Chief of Schools Evelyn Nunez.
Principals for the schools should be named in three to four weeks. The district is also holding an online session for Olney and Stetson staffers in the hopes of retaining as many of them as possible.
“We are being as strategic as possible to conserve those relationships as we move forward and be partners with the community, with the parents, with the middle school and high school students,” she added.
The district turned Olney and Stetson over to ASPIRA a decade ago under its Renaissance turnaround effort. The schools are going to court to try to get last month’s ruling reversed.
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