St. Mary’s Board of Education unanimously voted to defer approving the proposed building blueprint for Chesapeake Public Charter School until further deliberative information is provided.

Traffic safety surfaced as one of the major issues among several unanswered questions, school officials said Wednesday.

“This design seems like there’s an inherent risk,” School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano told an open meeting of the school board.

Stacy L. Maffei, project director of the charter school, was bombarded with questions by Martirano and board member Cathy Allen when she presented design development and construction drawing of the school at the board’s head office on Moakley Street.

“There has been some contradiction in the information conveyed to me,” Martirano said, wearing a somber look on his face as he listened to Maffei’s presentation. “I am feeling very, very concerned,” he said.

Board officials admit a contentious issue confronting the establishment of charter schools is that the school systems have to provide the monies per pupil enrolled at such schools. For the 160 pupils in St. Mary’s, the school board will have to give $1.4 million, schools officials said.

 

 

According to the U.S. Department of Education, charter schools provide enhanced parental choice and are exempt from many statutory and regulatory requirements. In exchange for increased flexibility, charter schools are held accountable for improving student academic achievement. The department says the objective is to replace rules-based governance with performance-based accountability.

School board chair Dr. Sal Raspa, speaking to The Bay Net from Nashville, described funding for charter schools as a problem. Raspa did not attend Wednesday’s meeting as he was visiting his ailing mother.

Brad Clements, Chief Operating Officer, said he was not in a position to recommend to the board to go ahead with Maffei’s blueprint. “There are a lot of unanswered questions. I can’t recommend approval of these drawings,” Clements said.

Kate Sullivan, governing board member of Chesapeake Public Charter School, listened attentively to the proceeding. Sullivan was among one of the ten founding members that met in St. Mary’s three years ago to work for the establishment of a public charter school.

Martirano said in his 25 years experience as an educator handling school issues he had seen traffic flow at the start and end of a school day was one of the main challenges a school has to face.

Allen said she was concerned there would be as many as 60 children in a multi-aged playground that was the size of a tennis court. She pointed out in the budget the proposed rent of the school was cited as $220,000 but in the lease agreement that amount jumps to $230,000, wondering how the shortfall would be met.

Sullivan, speaking to The Bay Net, said charter schools throughout the n