Field School District sets Falcon Academy free
Story by Katie Nix
Portage County might be losing the only charter school it has dedicated to elementary school students.
The Falcon Academy for Creative Arts, also known as FACA, received a notice Jan. 12 from its sponsor, the Field Local School District, which consists of Brimfield and Suffield Townships, that the sponsorship agreement as well as FACA’s lease on the former Central Elementary School would not be renewed for the 2015-2016 school year.
“We did appeal the decision and [on Feb. 3] we had an appeal hearing so we went and talked to the Field board and stated what our case was and why we thought why they should not non-renew us,” FACA principal Karen Chivers said.
School board president Laura May said at the board meeting Feb. 9 that the board has 14 days to respond to the appeal via written decision in regards to the final decision.
“Once we get that answer we can’t appeal it any further,” Chivers said. “But what we can do is to go out and start looking for a new sponsor and also to look for another location as they’re not willing to let us lease this building.”
May also said at the meeting that the board would be listening to those who would like to speak but it would “not be engaging in a dialogue back and forth” as advised by its attorney.
Additionally, invoking legal counsel on the part of the school board prohibited the five board members, as well as the superintendent and treasurer, from speaking for this story.
“The Field Local Board of Education is currently working through the legal process in regards to the Falcon Academy and have invoked counsel,” May said in an email. “We cannot comment on any matters in regards to status of the sponsorship of the Falcon Academy at this time.”
Parents speak out
FACA parents and students crowded the high school cafeteria for the monthly school board meeting to voice these concerns even though the board would not address them.
“This is a positive learning environment for all children,” FACA parent and Kent State professor Walter Gershon said. “I see teachers working with students and families as well as administrators and teachers working with students, which doesn’t happen. Children are given the space to think for themselves and to be themselves. There’s a dialogue. As a professor and a parent, it’s something to really look for in a school.”
Gershon’s statement was met with a round of applause and a standing ovation from the attendees. Other parents also shared their experience with the school.
“My son started out at Suffield [Elementary] and it was not a good place for him and it was not a good working environment,” FACA parent Beth Kitchen said. “But this year he will be a graduate of FACA in the eighth grade. It just doesn’t make sense to me that you’re going to be losing all of this additional money as well as the families that will be leaving to follow FACA.”
The district, which has a history of financial problems including eight failed levies since 2010, cited in its notice to FACA that the money being spent on the academy did not outweigh the potential benefits and instead was harming the district financially.
“Students who enroll in the Academy are educated by District employees, in a District-owned school building, and in a manner substantially similar to the manner in which District-enrolled children are educated,” the notice read. “But the costs of educating students in the Academy far exceed the costs that would be incurred by the District if the same students were educated by the District directly, instead of indirectly via the Academy.”
Chivers said the numbers the district cited don’t seem to show the whole picture. “The numbers don’t add up to me and when you adding rent,” Chivers said. “When you add in sponsorship fees as well as the fact that we currently have forty five students come from outside of the Field School District who bring state funding with them.”
Field Local School District Treasurer Todd Carpenter clarified the financial situation of the district in a post on the school’s website.
“The only true income Field Local receives is from the lease agreement and sponsorship agreement,” Carpenter wrote. “The money that Field Local pays out on behalf of the Falcon Academy for salaries, benefits and operational expenses is reimbursed by the Falcon Academy to cover those expenses. As a result, this equals money in and money out. At no point is the State Foundation money that leaves Field Local reimbursed to our district.”
According to the numbers presented by Carpenter, the district loses $1,000,909.47 from the state when students and their families choose FACA over their assigned schools and even with adding in the reimbursements from FACA, the district suffers a net loss of $888,877.41.
Elliott Ingersoll of Kent suggested the district learn from the academy rather than removing sponsorship.
“If there are problems in Field, maybe there are things done at FACA that can be implemented at the other schools rather than closing it down,” he said.
Another FACA parent, Kelly Redfern, posed an unanswered question to the board regarding the community.
“Why haven’t we come together to discuss these problems instead of dividing the community?” Redfern said. “There is a strong division and as such there is no dialogue happening.”
A List of Reasons
When citing the reasons it would not be renewing the lease and sponsorship agreement, the district said FACA did not serve as the arts immersion program that it was envisioned to be.
“The Academy was initially conceived as an “arts-immersion” school similar to the Miller South School of Performing Arts in Akron, and it was with this expectation that the Board undertook the sponsorship of the Academy,” the notice read. “Instead, the Academy operates in a manner that is substantially similar to the manner in which the schools of the District operate.”
Chivers said this assertion by the board isn’t true.
“They talked about at the beginning that they were told it was going to be like Miller South School where students auditioned to go there,” Chivers said. “And the whole goal for Miller South is not only to build academics but basically to build artists and the way that we use the arts is we integrate it into the academics so our goal is not to come up with artists or performers but we use those kids’ talents and skills to help build their academics so we’re looking for academic success.”
Chivers said the school utilizes arts within the academics to see the connections between different subject matter, rather than looking at individual subjects.
“What I love about this place is that they not only integrate the arts but as well as the arts within the academics so we don’t look at things as separate subjects,” Chivers said. “Based on brain research this is how people learn best, thorough integration and seeing those connections. It allows to students to show what they know in whatever way works for them.”
The district also noted in its letter the staffing of the Academy also presents a problem.
“The Academy is staff by District employees who are in the bargaining units of the District,” the letter said. “This staffing model, created by statute, imposes constraints upon the Board’s discretion with respect to the staffing of its own schools.”
Chivers said this doesn’t make sense to her.
“I still don’t understand what they mean by that, how it can possibly tax them as far as what kind of decisions they’re making,” Chivers said. “I still haven’t gotten a real good answer on that yet.”
The FACA teachers, as employees of the Field district, would be absorbed back into the schools but seniority would come into play.
“If I have some teachers who are low on the totem poll they might not be absorbed back in,” Chivers said.
Lastly, the district said in its notice that it had plans for the former Central Elementary School building and as such it would not be renewing the lease on the property, but will not speak on what the building will be used for.
Chivers said the school could stay in Portage County, but it also could be moving from the area.
“It depends on whether I can find another building in Portage County or not,” Chivers said. “Some people think it would be bad and it was…but we sent out notices to our families and asked if we move, would your children follow us and we have been surprised to hear how many people would follow us. It’s very encouraging, much more than we thought.”
Chivers said of the 195 students enrolled at the school, 147 have committed to following so far.
‘This is our family’
Students at FACA are not oblivious to the changes the district is planning on making and it doesn’t sit well with them.
“I just don’t get it,” Eighth grader Macy Coward said. “It’s a great school and there’s nobody here who doesn’t get along.”
Chivers said the culture of the school allows for this lack of bullying that wouldn’t be found at other schools.
“Everyone can be themselves,” Chivers said. “We don’t have bullying issues because everybody’s already pretty different and are accepted for being different.”
Chivers said some of the students have written letters to the school board to express this sentiment, saying the board is making a “bad decision” and FACA is a good school for learning and the board should be proud to have such a unique school in its district.
“You want to be able to say ‘I graduated from FACA’ and have people know what you’re talking about,” Amanda Stayer, an eighth grader who has been with the school since its inception in 2010.
Student Sam Kirbabas said he wanted other students to be able to experience the same things that he has, including his little sister.
“I know my little sister sometimes struggles with social stuff and I know here she won’t have to. It’s not even an option for social struggling,” he said.
Chivers said the students at the school, who already feel different from everyone else, found out that Field didn’t want to sponsor FACA and now as it they’re not wanted.
“I know a lot of us are sad because this has been our home for four years,” Sam Kirbabas said. “To all of us this is not just a school that we wake up and go to. This is our family.”
