Unity Charter May Be a Jewel, But It's One With Some Costs

In 2011-2012, the Morris School District will spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million—.

And of that, a projected chunk of nearly $865,000 will go to educate an anticipated 65 Morristown, Morris Township and Morris Plains students under a system the district’s board of education doesn't control, and from which it can’t opt out.

That money will be sent to the in Morris Township—a highly in-demand facility that serves students from six counties, aiming to impart lessons of sustainability alongside those about reading, writing and arithmetic. More students come from the host Morris School District than from any other community.

Unity is part of a statewide network of charter schools—schools of choice, created by the state, run by their own administrations and trustees, but funded by the districts that send students to them. It's the sort of system Gov. Chris Christie has trumpeted in his ongoing education reform effort.

WHAT ROLE FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS?

This report is part of a joint project between NJSpotlight.com (an issues-oriented news site that focuses on policy, politics, and community) and Patch.com to provide both a statewide and local look at the politics of charter schools in many NJ communities, and the tensions that sometimes arise regarding their funding in the age of budget cutbacks.

Statewide: Charter schools in suburbia under debate
East Brunswick: Questioning charter school's right to exist
Gloucester: A home-schooler takes on the school board
Hoboken: Can the public schools compete, by getting better?
Livingston: How many Mandarin schools is too many?
Princeton:
Red Bank:
South Brunswick: A debate or a shouting match?
Teaneck: Innovation or duplication?

WHERE THE MONEY GOES

The governor and other proponents point to academic successes of charters hosted in struggling public districts, as well as the often creative and innovative teaching methods spearheaded by specialized charters dealing with unique missions—such as foreign language immersion or, in Unity's case, sustainability.

In some districts, the financial relationship is a point of contention. A district can't control how many students it'll send to a charter school (this year, the Morris School District sent Unity 53 students, at a cost of about $700,000—12 fewer students than it anticipates this fall); that's decided by a lottery among applicants. But for each student it sends, it also passes along money—90 percent of the district's per-pupil cost.

On one hand, the local district gets a break—it doesn't have to expend the costs to educate each of those students itself, and only lays out 90 cents on the dollar for their education. On another, many districts find they don't send enough students to really impact their own overall spending—a classroom with 19 students instead of 21 still needs a full-time teacher, the building will still cost the same amount to heat and cool, and buses still cost the same to run and staff, even with a few empty seats. Some educators say that means costs are higher overall.

"Well, yes, of course it’s a burden," Morris School District Board of Education President Lisa Pollack said. "This is money we have to push out the door and we don’t get to reduce commensurately our expenses. It’s not a tit-for-tat thing. We don't cut a teacher or administrator or cut coaches because of that. It's the same everywhere in the state."

Charles Knopf, business administrator of the Unity Charter School, however, argues “there is a point of view that the ‘90 percent’ (charters get of per-pupil cost) is actually much less.”

“This approach to funding is not something new or radical,” he said.”There are some choice schools throughout the state ... in which funding follows students. The same can be true for vo-tech schools, including their academies. The sending districts do not express the needs of control ...  nor is it new for charter schools, having been in existence for 13 to 14 years.”

'IT IS RARE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT TO BE THE INNOVATOR'

Knopf said he believes the funding mechanism has come under more scrutiny recently because Christie is encouraging the growth of and increased use of charter schools.

“In fact I first noticed this argument being made in newspapers, either in articles or on op-ed pages this current fiscal year,” he said.

In the Morris School District, tuition to Unity Charter still represents only a fraction of a percent of the overall budget. And it’s one among many costs the district can’t directly control, but for which it remains responsible.

"You can do the math, it’s a per pupil cost at 90 percent. It’s significant money. But it has not been an overwhelming burden,” Pollack said. “It isn’t something we cannot accommodate."

And while it’s true that local boards of education don’t get to say how their money is used once it makes its way to the charter, Knopf said that’s beside the point.

“The state set up charter schools to be independent of local board of education control, places of education innovation. ... It is rare for the establishment to be the innovator,” he said.

At Unity Charter, educators say, classes are kept small (the largest class has 20 students), and focus is put on social and emotional skills alongside the academic ones. Interest groups, in four- to five-week sessions, serve as mini-elective course and can be student-parent or teacher-led (subjects range from puppetry to football to story-writing). Children have personal learning plans that identify strengths and use them to help address weaknesses.

"For example, a student might be very artistic yet need assistance with writing,” Carolyn Mungo, the school's lead person (effectively, its director)  told Patch last year. “He/she would create artistic masterpieces and then write about each of these works."

GETTING PAST 'A BUMPY START'

Overall, Pollack said the relationship with Unity has been a mostly positive one. Mostly.

"It's been fine," she said. "We got off to a bumpy start."

That's a reference to the time around Unity's 1998 founding, when a larger portion of its children were from the Morris School District. Pollack said the district took the stance that Unity should have a more diverse student community—that court rulings requiring desegregation and racial balance in typical public schools apply the same way to the charter.

However, Pollack said, "We lost that case ... so that was that."

But in the time since, Unity's catch-all area has grown, and with it the representation of the diverse communities it serves.

"After that, everything was fine,” Pollack said. “I think they have branched out. They attract people from a multi-county area. ... We of course believe we offer a first-rate public school education, but there are people–and they have a right to–who choose the charter school for whatever reason, either because of mission, size or another reason."

And Knopf described his facility's working relationship with the Morris School District as excellent.

"We communicate our calendar and updates to the Morris School District transportation department. … They bus in-district students to our school, from home, and vice versa. Our calendar and schedule are set-up so as to fit into the Morris School District calendar and bus schedule to maximize the efficient use of their buses,” he said.

As the finance person at Unity, Knopf said, "I work with them to allow them to plan their budget as best as possible. I project students by sending-district and inform them so that they can estimate their charter school expenses for the subsequent year."

And Knopf picks up Unity's check from the district once a month in person, to avoid delays in the mail.

“Of course we exchange thoughts at that time about common issues,” he said.

FINANCES AT UNITY

Unity Charter's own 2010-11 budget—not including grants, which vary year-to-year and are sometimes applied over a multi-year period—is $1,745,950, based on 144.5 students as of Oct. 15 of last year. The charter school is anticipating more students in 2011-2012—a student population of 180, and with it a budget of $2,343,361.

"The big growth is unusual,” Knopf said. “We planned this growth a year ago and received approval from the DOE [state Department of Education]. It is coincident with moving into new space and having the room to grow."

Because charter schools are funded through the tuition payments from districts that send students, at rates the charters can’t control, that budget is tightly connected to the student population.

Knopf said in some ways, charters act like public schools in planning their budgets year to year, and try to use free fund balances to help deal with budget shifts.

“We pretty much know in advance if we will have a shortfall or not at year end and can curtail optional spending or attempt to backfill a student that transfers out,” he said. “In addition some charter schools become adept at obtaining grants.”

LEARN MORE

To learn how charters in your area are performing—or all schools, for that matter—click on NJ Spotlight's report card.