“We’re looking for other sponsors right now,” Chris Martin, chairman of the board of trustees for Carter G. Woodson, said Monday, May 24.
Officials at Nu Bethel, which has about 50 elementary students, declined comment.
The schools’ financial troubles and poor academic performance led Educational Resource Consultants of Ohio to not renew its sponsorship for the coming school year, said J. Leonard Harding, ERCO’s executive director.
Sponsors, also called “authorizers,” are charged with holding charter schools accountable with respect to Ohio’s laws and education standards.
Woodson, located at 1 Elizabeth Place, is a school for dropouts and other at-risk students ages 16 to 21. Martin said the school started the year with more than 300 students, but about 80 have dropped out along the way, leading to a reduction in state and federal funding and more pressure on a bottom line that’s been mired in the red for more than a year. “I’ve lost well over 40 percent of my support (this year),” he said.
The school is on track to receive about $1.7 million in state funding this year, according to the Ohio Department of Education. That’s down from nearly $2.3 million last year.
Principal Carlos Blair said the school has had to cut six teachers and several support staff this year, as well as cut pay 20 percent. It’s also had to restructure courses and scale back learning materials, he said.
Blair said the cuts, coupled with low employee and student morale, make it hard to build on some of the school’s recent successes. He said last year, for instance, the school graduated 51 out of 72 seniors, a school record, and saw a handful move on to college. “At this point in time, I’m just trying to make sure we focus on the students,” he said.
Martin said the board should decide on the school’s future in the next few weeks.
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