GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Parents at the Harlem charter school placed on probation last week are staging a revolt against members of the school’s board of trustees.

About a quarter of parents at the year-old New York French American Charter School have signed on to a letter demanding that board chair Johnny Celestin resign, according to a parent who has been active in organized the protest. The parents plan to present the letter to Celestin at a board meeting tonight and have already alerted him to their plans, according to the parent, Jenna Chrisphonte.

The letter accuses Celestin and a second board member, Sochenda Samreth, of neglecting board duties and failing to support the school’s finances and operations. Parents told GothamSchools that the board members rarely visited the school, did not communicate with parents, blocked new members from joining, and made some decisions privately, in violation of open meeting laws.

When it placed the school on probation last week, the city Department of Education cited the board’s approach to informing the community about approaching meetings as one of several “serious violations” of state law and the school’s own charter.

Claire Zaglauer, a parent who is set to join the board after being elected last week to lead the school’s parent-teacher organization, said she thought some of the problems cited in the probation report had been resolved since the city’s May visit but the board did not inform DOE officials. For example, she said, the school actually asked parents to sign off on the city’s own discipline policy in September, yet the DOE was not told that a discipline policy was in place.

“I believe that the main reason the DOE has gotten an unclear picture is because of the lack of communication from the board,” said Zaglauer, who teaches kindergarten in bilingual French class at another public school.

The conflict illuminates a tension in charter school governance: Unless board members have broken the law, the only tool authorizers have to address their activity — or lack thereof — involves putting the school’s very existence in jeopardy. (more…)