AUGUSTA, Maine — Two of the four groups vying to start charter schools in Maine moved one step closer to opening after votes Tuesday by the Maine Charter School Commission.
Commissioners voted to advance discussions with Acadia Academy, in the Lewiston-Auburn area, and Snow Pond Arts Academy in the Sidney area. The votes were 6-1 and unanimous, respectively, according to Bob Kautz, executive director of the commission.
There are only three slots left for new charter schools in Maine. The state’s charter school law, which passed in 2012, limits the number of schools to 10 in the first 10 years.
The commission also voted unanimously to end talks with Inspire ME Academy, which hoped to set up shop in the Sanford-Springvale area in York County, and Peridot Montessori Charter School, which sought to establish a school in Ellsworth or Trenton. The vote effectively denies their bids to open for the 2016-17 school year.
Acadia and Snow Pond officials will move on to a public hearing and public interview day in Augusta, according to Kautz. There, they’ll have more in-depth discussions with commissioners about plans for the schools. Snow Pond’s is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 26, in Room 103 of the Cross Office Building in Augusta. Acadia will have its session at 2 p.m. on the same day in the same location.
Acadia Academy would serve prekindergarten through sixth grade. The applicants say their school will focus on students who benefit from hands-on approaches to learning. The charter school commission rejected a previous application from the group in 2014.
Snow Pond Arts Academy would be based in Sidney at the site of the New England Music Camp and serve high school-age students, primarily from Central Maine. It would focus heavily on the arts but also provide core academics. The 78-year-old music camp, through co-director John Wiggin, is leading the push to start the school.
The commission will vote in November to decide whether to enter the contract stage, later voting on the contract itself.
Shelley Reed, commission chairwoman, said Tuesday that the applicants moving forward were “promising schools,” but the commissioners would need to “delve further into the issues and concerns that came from the review teams.”
The commission is not obligated to approve any charter school openings if it doesn’t deem the plans viable.
“Not everybody that has a vision can really accomplish it on the ground,” Reed said.
Members of the Maine Charter School Commission interviewed each of the applicants during sessions on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, after spending a month combing through applications submitted on Sept 1. Each application includes hundreds of pages of financials, plans and details of how each school would be organized. Those applications are available on the commission’s website, www.maine.gov/csc/index.
During those reviews, commissioners outlined a series of strengths and concerns regarding plans for the schools. Those concerns contributed to denial decisions for Inspire ME and Peridot Montessori.
At Inspire ME, the commission was concerned with the financial plan for purchasing a facility to operate in, a lack of financial controls, lack of community involvement and a lack of diversity in the skill and knowledge sets of the board, among other issues.
Peridot had a 5- to 10-year plan that wasn’t “fully thought through,” failed to align with Maine Learning Results standards, and had “no clear picture of how the academic program would be implemented,” according to the commissioners. The school’s plan also didn’t convince the commission that the school would be able to provide a quality education in its first year of operation.
Acadia Academy and/or Snow Pond Arts could be the first bricks-and-mortar charter schools approved in Maine since 2012. Everything approved since that year has been a virtual school.
This year, the state’s second virtual charter school — and the only charter approved for 2015 — Maine Virtual Academy, began educating its first crop of students. The other virtual charter is South Portland-based Maine Connections Academy, which opened in 2014 and graduated its first seniors at the close of the last school year.
The physical charter schools are Baxter Academy for Technology and Science in Portland, Fiddlehead School of Arts and Science in Gray and Harpswell Coastal Academy, each of which opened in the fall of 2013.
The state’s first charters, Cornville Regional Charter School and Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley, welcomed their first students in the fall of 2012.
Together, the state’s charters educated about 1,540 students, according to the Department of Education. Maine has about 184,000 students.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.