HADLEY – State officials reviewing the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School have found “several areas of concern” following a site visit last summer in the wake of another state agency finding that two staff members were guilty of neglect.
The state Department of Children and Families determined there was a case of neglect at the school involving a 9-year-old child who was confined to “a time-out” for at least seven hours. The child was allowed to use the rest room and eat lunch. The incident took place March 25, 2011.
The state found that principal Kathleen Wang and the classroom teacher Regan Hall were guilty of neglect. They are appealing those findings, said Richard Alcorn, who co-founded the school with his wife Wang. He is also the school’s executive director.
Attorney Amy S. DiDonna, who represents the school, called it a “factually and legally erroneous finding.”
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, meanwhile, visited the school in June and found areas of concerns and outlined an action plan. The purpose, according to the education department’s report “was not to reinvestigate the incident, rather to examine areas of charter school practice and operation that are the purview of the DESE as the school’s authorizer.”
That education department will be discussing the areas of concern during the school’s five-year charter renewal. Alcorn said the tentative date for that meeting is Jan. 24.
According to the report, the findings were grouped into the categories of discipline, special education, governance and leadership. When it comes to discipline, staff “did not have a common understanding of school discipline systems, definitions, or consequences,” among findings there.
The state found that special education staffing is limited, as is oversight, supervision and teacher training.
Also, the state found that board members “displayed a lack of knowledge about their role, their responsibilities, school policies and governance practices.”
Alcorn said he has responded to all of the action items in the state report sent to the school in December. He said he hopes he has satisfied them all and is willing to address anything state officials feel is missing. He said the school had been working on a number of initiatives prior to the incident.
“We’ve done a lot of work after the incident,” he said. “We were looking at behavioral stuff (before). We’re a new school.”
The school was granted its charter in 2007, beginning with kindergarten and first grade and adding a grade a year. Two years ago, it opened a sixth-grade class to launch its middle school.
The school serves students from 39 communities in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties. Besides its five-year renewal, the school has filed two amendments with the state, seeking to add a high school and expand the kindergarten through eighth grade program. Last year, the state denied its request to add 120 more seats to that program.
Mitchell D. Chester, Elementary and Secondary Education commissioner, wrote, “I believe there is insufficient evidence at this time regarding the school’s overall success with respect to academic performance, organizational viability, and faithfulness to its charter. The school is still in its first charter term and has not yet reached its maximum enrollment and grade span for which it was chartered.”
The idea, Alcorn said, was to wait for the charter renewal. In 2008, the school received a five-year $1.5 million grant from the federal Department of Education to allow the high school program. Alcorn remains optimistic the state will grant the changes. More than 100 parents have signed a letter to the governor in support of the school expansion.