The Buffalo School Board may have ordered Enterprise and Westminster Community charter schools to close, but the two are fighting back in court.This is an unusual situation, since the two schools were chartered by the school board, not by Albany. They are the only two of the state's 351 public charter schools slated for closure.
Saying Enterprise and Westminister were lower in achievement than public city schools, board members voted March 31 to close, effective at the end of this school year. Although, Westminster students might stay in that building because the city owns it.
Enterprise Board Chair Thomas Ess said that wasn't fair to the 1,000 students, because it's hard to measure achievement in the middle of a pandemic.
"We've had no ability over the last two years, really, to have any type of academic standard that is equal," Ess said. "We've been in a pandemic. We've had no ability to show our work, other than internal measures, which we've provided."
He said Enterprise's internal measurements showed improvement and the decision to close "was made in haste."
Ess said it also leaves the K-8 students in a bind, since the decision was made after alternatives had passed.
"We are very concerned about the students and their ability to find any type of other placement, given the timing of the decision," he said. "They are not going to fare well through this transition because they have not been given a chance to find another school, go into the lottery of other charter schools. The reality is that we've been robbed of that opportunity."
In court papers, lawyers for the two schools argue there are rules to follow for closing a charter school, including doing it in public, and the board and the administration just didn't do it right.
Asked about the court cases, the school board said it hasn't received copies of the lawsuit, so it had no comment.
