From the meeting minutes when Phil Berger Jr. got his charter school approved; Great stuff

Guess who wasn't there;

Looks like Jr. got preferential treatment;

A charter school advisory council Monday added a Mecklenburg County charter-school application to a long list of proposals that could be sidelined by flawed paperwork.

The Public Charter School Advisory Council is still considering whether incomplete applications should bar would-be operators from a chance to open independent public schools in 2014-15. The N.C. Office of Charter Schools rejected 27 of 69 applications statewide, zeroing in on what some call minor errors.

...four of 19 applications for Mecklenburg County schools have been flagged as incomplete, as well as five of 10 applications to open schools in surrounding counties.

...lawmakers and education officials are wrangling over the best way to ensure education quality and fiscal responsibility at charter schools, which are public schools that do not report to local school boards.

...The situation has drawn the attention of state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, who council member Alan Hawkes said had asked him to do what he can to hear out the rejected charter applicants.

Berger and other key Republican lawmakers are considering legislation that would create a new board to govern charter schools, in the process eliminating the Public Charter School Advisory Council and reducing the authority of the state Board of Education over those schools. The bill was approved by the Senate Education Committee last week.

...The rejection letters cite reasons such as not submitting hard copies to go along with the electronic application; not having all board members sign documents; not including an organizational chart; not including a copy of the school calendar, and reporting a budget deficit.

...Joel Medley, director of the Office of Charter Schools ... said the issue has received so much scrutiny that his office re-examined all the applications, included the ones that were approved. He told Betterton on Monday that James K. Polk Public School in Mecklenburg County and Davidson Charter Academy in Davidson County should not have passed the initial screening.

Betterton said the council will decide Tuesday whether to still consider those two schools.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/08/3968403/uncertainty-on-2014-charter-schools.html#.U7MDLPldWnY#storylink=cpy