The Pennsylvania Charter Appeals Board on Tuesday upheld an earlier decision to award a charter to Catalyst Academy, overturning a unanimous vote by the Pittsburgh Public Schools board last year.
The appeals board on Monday voted 4-2 to award the charter to the kindergarten-through-eighth grade charter school that plans to serve students in Pittsburgh’s East End communities. Charter school advocates said the board had to vote again due to a technicality, even though it voted in favor of awarding the charter in February, that time by a vote of 3-2.
At that time, district solicitor Ira Weiss said he planned to recommend that the school board appeal the decision to Commonwealth Court.
Catalyst Academy applied for a charter in 2017, which was denied by the Pittsburgh school board in February 2018. Board members had expressed concerns about the school’s proposed disciplinary policy and its ability to accommodate students with special needs, among other things.
The charter school proposed to enroll students in the neighborhoods of Garfield, East Liberty, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington, Homewood, East Hills and the Hill District. Catalyst originally planned to open next school year with students in kindergarten and first grade, eventually expanding up through eighth grade. The opening has been delayed to the 2020-21 school year, school leaders said.
“This reaffirms what the district’s own review team found when they determined that we met all nine review categories, including our plan for serving children with special needs,” Catalyst founder and CEO Brian Smith said in a statement about the CAB decision. “The unprecedented strength of our plan continues to withstand additional roadblocks. Unfortunately, this recent challenge means that families without access to strong neighborhood schools will have to wait an additional year to be able to enroll their children at Catalyst Academy.”
Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1590 or @Ebehrman on Twitter.
First Published: May 21, 2019, 8:30 p.m.
