Of Duties Unfulfilled, Part Two

As discussed below, the Eagle Ridge Academy Board seems to lack any real principle to govern its actions, other than an infallible certainty that they want a school and they don’t like the outgoing Director. Lacking a principle from which to act, it cannot be a surprise that the Board has bungled the facility question from the start. It must be admitted that charter schools are at a great disadvantage with facilities due to the absurdly inadequate lease-aid funding provided for by the state. However, knowing this ought to energize the Board. Few can quibble with the results of the remodel last summer; the space is much more amenable and it seems there are more classrooms than there were. However, the bright paint and new carpet are only decorations on what is an abject failure on the part of the Board.

Few remember, perhaps, that Eagle Ridge Academy hired a professional real estate mogul to help with the school’s search for a new facility. The original building plan had collapsed at the last moment, and the current facility was a last minute decision. Certainly, a crappy building is preferable to no building at all. But shouldn’t a real facility have been the first order of business for the Board? Instead, no steps were taken until late in the lease. At which point, the Board hired a consultant from Welsh, the current landlord, to help scout out properties. It was a secret to no one that this individual, besides being employed by the current landlord, was also an investor in the owner of the current building. In an era of high commercial vacancy in the western suburbs, he had a vested interest in keeping tenants in his building. Considering all the claims of “conflict of interest” that been leveled at teachers, it’s utterly astounding that the Board could not recognize one that bit it in the ass.

For weeks and weeks of touring curiously unsuitable facilities, all the Eagle Ridge Academy community got was a PowerPoint presentation proving that the newly renegotiated lease was the best deal out there. But the truth is this Board couldn’t get a deal on a slushy at the North Pole. They were played like a banjo by Welsh and accepted a facility that remains utterly inadequate for instruction and marketing. In the third year of the lease, the school could have as many as fifty additional students. Where will they learn? Where will they eat? Where was all the great business experience that it supposed to be so vital to a Board? The Board took the path of least resistance, then left the mess on the table. If parents are wondering why the departing Director didn’t return their calls promptly last spring, look no further than the remodel. No Board member took an active role in it. The only one to be seen protecting the interests of the school was the Director, who became the de facto general contractor.

Having twice shackled the school to the current deficient building, the Board has made no effort to revisit the issue. Could it be that they are happy to remain where they are? No other explanation presents itself. Of course, given this Board’s manifest contempt for open meeting law, we could hope that conversations have gone on behind closed doors, but the facility has not shown up on any recent agenda. Both MDE and the MN Association of Charter Schools have ample resources for dealing with the inevitable facility crunch. Many charter schools share space with like-minded organizations. Some have opened shell organizations to purchase property. Eagle Ridge Academy’s Board has done nothing.

Cramped space may become another reason for parents to look elsewhere, perhaps joining a mediocre faculty and watered down curriculum, if steps are not taken. Much hinges on the current election.