By George Kevin Jordan, AFRO Staff Writer

The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) voted Tuesday for charter revocation of National Collegiate Preparatory Public High School with a one year wind down period.

The school and the board have held impassioned meetings over the last several months. National Collegiate Prep students, staff and advocates wanted the school to have more time to make improvements to raise math and other scores.

The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) voted for charter revocation of National Collegiate Preparatory Public High School with a one-year wind down period. (Courtesy Photo)

The board, however, said the efforts and turnaround plan arrived too late for their actions to change the vote.

National Collegiate Prep was granted a charter by the DCPCSB in 2009. While schools have independence over budgets and other matters, they do have to uphold charter rules and sign an agreement with the board.

The board held a 10 year review of the school and stated that NCPH had not met all their agreement goals. According to their report, they stated that National Collegiate partially met three goals and did not meet one of its goal. One couldn’t be accessed and one was removed.

School staff pushed back saying they had met eight of their ten goals.

In a public written response the school debated certain criterias of measurement especially when they came to Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career testing, saying in part that, “NCP’s PARCC scores alone are not valid and reliable measures of NCP’s proficiency or performance in ELA and Math and show that, when NWEA MAP data is considered as a measure of growth, as it must be consistent with the  business rules NCP adopted when it amended its charter, NCP’s students have achieved average or better than average growth in ELA and Math.”

In late December the board moved to start the revocation process but still allowed for public testimony to be heard. Last week there was an outpour of support from students and parents during a public hearing.

During Tuesday’s special meeting the mood was somber on both sides and tensions high.

“I used to teach in Southeast and kids in Southeast have gotten a bad deal in terms of the school they have available to them for a really long time and it’s not right,” Board member Steve Bumbaugh said. “The kids deserve better than that.”

“If this school closes in June there aren’t going to be a lot of good options for kids who attended last year. I’m trying to think of a compromise. I would like to suggest a lifeline.”

Naomi Shelton, another board member, proposed a motion for revocation with a three year wind down, in an attempt to “extend the runaway to ensure the safety of students as we transition.”

“The outcomes of the school are less than stellar, but at the same time we heard overwhelmly the need to give safety concerns priority in how we deal with this.”

Ultimately the a vote was proposed by Bumbaugh and passed to close the school by the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and in interim closure plan developed by DCPCSB by March 1. An amended charter agreement executed by the school and the board by January 25th and no new students could be enrolled past that time.