Changing to Charter. Rebecca A. Shore
a different space that exerts so much pressure for performance?
The private school conversion motivations are a little more understandable—the allure of public funding. Private schools traditionally operate from a tuition-based model, with fundraising as a supplement; thus, converting to a public school shifts that model to a per-student allocation. In theory, public funding makes the budget easier to balance and opens the school to a wider student population. Instead of relying upon only families that can afford the tuition, these newly converted charters are open to any child eligible to attend a public school.
This draw of public funding becomes even more appealing during times of economic downturn as fewer families are eligible to afford the private school tuition. In fact, a North Carolina Charter applicant referenced this issue back in 2013. With its enrollment dipping from 436 students to 361, the private school faced a six-digit loss of funding. Note this specific passage from the application:
The decline in the local economy has taken its toll on Vance County. Incomes have decreased significantly since 2008. 2009–2011 represented some of the darkest economic times for Vance County in several decades. This has not left Kerr-Vance Academy untouched with regard to economic performance. The depressed economy, in conjunction with the opening of two new charter schools have made for challenging financial times for KVA. Given the choice of a tuition-free, high quality academic program at a charter school versus a tuition-based, high quality academic program at a private school, many families have found themselves forgoing the latter in favor of the former. KVA has seen a decline in enrollment from 2010 to present due to a significant increase in parents unable to pay tuition.1
Needless to say, the private-to-public metamorphosis is a dream scenario if the law permits the conversation and if the proposal receives approval from the authorizing authority. Within that promising situation, however, major pitfalls exist that must be overcome.
Converting a Private School
Without a doubt, the conversion process becomes more challenging for private schools. Yes, they possess history, facilities, and current students, but those aspects create issues for the possible charter school. The private school’s history or school culture may have to undergo serious modification to convert to charter status forcing them to use a valuation model to gauge opportunity costs of loss in the current against the gain in the future.
For instance, the school may have previously required all students to wear uniforms that were purchased by the families; however, this expectation would be a barrier to enrollment for families that could not afford the uniform purchase. As such, a school undergoing the conversion process would have to decide what to do about school uniforms—keep the policy but offer assistance to families or scrap the policy entirely. This issue merely scratches the surface; but a deeper, historical matter can cause an immediate identity crisis for the school.
As an existing private school, the school leaders discussed, pondered, drafted, adopted, and lived one mission statement. In doing so, the school planned its instructional and operational plans based upon that specific mission which, sometimes, has to be completely overhauled for conversion to work. In September 2016, the Mountain Island Day School charter application was filed with the NC Office of Charter Schools. This application sought to convert an existing private, Christian school that featured “blessing before meals, an opening prayer each day, weekly Bible classes and chapel.”2
With the North Carolina educational code—§ 115C-218.50—stating that a charter school “shall be nonsectarian in its programs,”3 Mountain Island Day School had to sacrifice its mission, curriculum, operating procedures, and expectations for students. This decision may have been the first-ever in North Carolina, and the founders understood these changes could repel long-standing families and supporters of the school.
Facilities
Despite receiving unanimous approval, the hard work was just beginning. The founders of Mountain Island Day School then took steps to immediately address religious issues on the website and facility to ensure proper separation of church and state. The prior building was known for its steeple and large cross, but modifications were necessary to comply with legal requirements.4 These facility modifications, revisions to the website, and other responsibilities (e.g., marketing their school) had to be addressed without public funding as part of the process to become a charter school.
Facilities also create ownership, liability, and financial issues. The organization entity that owned the property being utilized by the private school controls those capital assets and must decide on next steps. In some instances, the prior landlord will simply lease those facilities to the newly converted charter school to prevent a spatial vacancy or to cover previously incurred financial liabilities. In a North Carolina conversion application, the prior landlord did “not intend to transfer its assets or its liabilities” to the new charter school but would, instead, “provide for an operating lease on the assets” to then “use lease revenues to service existing debt.”5
In other instances, the property is outright sold or gifted to a nonprofit entity. One private school conversion in North Carolina did an interesting split of assets—the “real property” was sold to a family trust and the deed would transfer upon final payment while “all contents” of the facility remained the property of the newly formed charter school and would convey upon its approval.6 Neither of the situations mentioned above is wrong, but some additional questions by the authorizer assuredly arose from the dealings to ensure the budgets were fiscally sound. The specifics of facility arrangements are additional considerations that any private school conversion will face and have to explain to stakeholders and authorizing entities as the process moves forward.
Student Enrollment
Private schools also face a specific challenge due to their previous existence and a current student body. The choice to convert from private to public means that the school must hold an open enrollment period, whereby, they determine if they must hold a lottery for students. For example, if the school has 450 seats and more than 600 applications for those seats, then a blind lottery is held to determine the school’s enrollment. Students previously enrolled in the private school cannot be given an advantage over any new applicants, and this stark realization can create parental opposition toward the conversion effort. The newly converted public school must act in such a way that its integrity is without question as many will be watching and scrutinizing every decision regarding enrollment.
In August 2013, a new North Carolina private school conversion had to reopen its enrollment due to a complaint filed with the NC Department of Public Instruction. The conversion school increased its grade level caps from kindergarten through eighth grade beyond those approved by the state, meaning that they would not receive funding for those additional students. The allegation rested upon the fact that families not affiliated with the private school were not given the same opportunity at enrollment as were the previously enrolled private school students. While the school denied that any families were not given the fair opportunity, they did recognize how their actions could have been perceived as unethical.7
The heart of the matter focused on whether or not proper notice and time for enrollment were given to families not affiliated with the private school. In fact, the complaint letter provided information indicating confusion within the enrollment process—multiple days of enrollment leading to multiple days of possible lottery, only one day’s notice of accepting applications, a short time-frame to complete enrollment documents, and applications would only be accepted during the school day.8
While school officials denied any wrongdoing and presented a plan to try and rectify the situation, the motivations and intentions of the school were called into question. Any private school converting to charter status must take seriously their efforts to host an unimpeachable enrollment process and lottery.
Converting a Public School
Conversely, converting an existing public school to a charter school has its own unique aspects too. To gain a better understanding of the differences, the focus here is on a specific example from South Carolina in 2006—the Orange Grove Elementary School became the Orange Grove Charter School. One needs to understand the policy and