With the mayor and the city's school officials in disagreement, a debate over charter schools is developing in New Castle this week.
A charter school is said to be interested in opening a location in New Castle. But the New Castle Community School Corp. is trying to make sure the charter school can't have the location it may want - an 86-year-old vacant building the school corporation owns.
The property in question is the former New Castle seventh-grade building on 14th Street. New Castle Mayor Jim Small said on Thursday that the Anderson Preparatory Academy, a military-style charter school, is interested in taking over the building to expand its operations to New Castle.
However, NCCSC isn't in favor of selling the building to the charter school because of the competition for students and funding the charter school would bring. A charter school is a school that is created by charter or contract. Usually, a charter school caters to a specific type of student or uses a different educational environment to teach students.
On Monday night, the New Castle School Board will consider whether to approve an agreement to sell the vacant school building to a church that wants to make use of the building's gymnasium and cafeteria.
As part of the agreement with the church, NCCSC hopes to put a stipulation in the deal that says that the property can never in the future be operated as a kindergarten through 12th-grade school that competes with NCCSC.
Situations like the one unfolding in New Castle were on the minds of lawmakers during the Indiana General Assembly's 2011 session. Legislators created a law this year that says that school corporations must make available any unused buildings to charter schools for lease or purchase. However, that new law doesn't take effect until July.
Another law, which is already on the books, says a school's governing body "may not make a covenant that prohibits the sale of real property to another educational institution."
On Thursday, Lauren Auld, press secretary for the Indiana Department of Education, said if New Castle put a provision in the sale agreement restricting the use of the building, someone potentially could challenge the provision in court.
Bo Pheffer, assistant superintendent of New Castle Community Schools, said this week that Robert L. Guillaume, the commandant of the Anderson charter school, was one of several people who toured the 14th Street building recently.
The Courier-Times could not reach Guillaume for comment this week.
Pheffer said the school corporation here doesn't want to sell the building to the charter school because the charter school would compete for students with the corporation.
He added that for every student NCCSC lost to the charter school, the corporation would lose about $6,000 in funding. And by trying to make sure a charter school can't take over the vacant building, Pheffer said the corporation is doing what's in its best interest.
But Small has a different opinion on the matter. On Thursday, Small said the Anderson Preparatory Academy's operation in New Castle wouldn't take the "cream of the crop" from NCCSC but would instead take students who need a new challenge.
"I think competition is good," Small said. "And it provides a different direction educationally."
Small also said he was disappointed that the city will likely lose the "opportunity" to have the charter school. Small said there aren't other available buildings here that would meet the charter school's needs.
During Monday's council meeting, Joe Joplin, the pastor of the House Church of God, which is likely to be the next owner of the building, said his church wants to make use of the cafeteria and the gymnasium in the former school building and then make the rest of the space available to other entities.
"We are hoping and eager to partner with anyone who is able and willing to use the building," Joplin said. "Mainly, our goal is put services in the building that benefit the community."
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