Charter School closing likely after board meeting

Board members of the West Concord Public Charter School were scheduled to meet Tuesday night with a vote to close the three-year-old school anticipated.
Following a public informational meeting and board meeting last week the board decided to give efforts to save the school one last chance and also to speak with staff at Friends of Education, the organization that serves as the school’s “authorizer.” Board Chair Minor “Corky” Buckingham said he would speak with Friends of Education officials the next day.
“After my discussion with Friends of Education today it is apparent that WCPCS likely does not meet the necessary requirements for operation beyond this school year,” Buckingham wrote in an email to parents and community members after that discussion.
“The board must still meet to determine our official status, which will be decided and voted on at our next board meeting on May 31, 2016 at 6 p.m.”
The school has faced financial struggles throughout its existence primarily because student numbers have not generated enough per-pupil state aid. The money from the state has been supplemented with donations from community members and fundraising efforts.
Since a charter school is a public school that receives per-pupil funding from the state a charter school does not charge tuition for attending but unlike traditional public school districts it does not have any taxing authority.
The key to keeping the school open, board members said, was increasing student enrollment and that has been the focus for the past months.
At last week’s informational meeting those attending said they would like another chance to try to increase enrollment by getting out and talking to those they knew who had children and might be interested in enrolling them.
The board had also earlier made other changes that it hoped would increase the school’s viability including reverting to the school’s original kindergarten through grade five configuration, eliminating the full-time director’s position and combining grades kindergarten through grade 2 and grades three, four and five into two classes.
Another controversy arose at the regular board meeting following the informational session when the issue of Director Nicole Musolf being placed on administrative leave surfaced.
Teachers at the school questioned who they could go to when problems, specifically discipline issues, arose in the absen