Education commissioner rejects Pearl Creek appeal, saying she has no authority to act

Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said she does not have the authority to consider an appeal of the Pearl Creek charter school proposal, saying it’s up to the Fairbanks North Star Borough School district.

“I have no legal authority to review either of PCSC’s appeals or to compel any action by the school board,” Bishop said in a letter to the district’s lawyers.

I wrote about this issue the other day, saying that since there were no written findings from the school board on the charter application, there was nothing for Bishop to review and she could not do what they asked—which was to approve the charter school application.

Here is the letter from Bishop to the school district, a missive that obviously was the work of wordy state lawyers.

The school board did not act on the charter application this spring, pointing to the long-established deadline of October 1. The charter school advocates say they could not have met that goal because they didn’t launch their effort until after the district moved to close Pearl Creek and two other schools early this year.

Bishop’s letter likely means that the Pearl Creek charter is off the table for the school year that begins late this summer unless the charter school advocates file suit in Superior Court. It would be up to the court to decide if not acting on the application is the equivalent of denying the application, she said.

Going to court would be a bad idea for various reasons, one of which is that it would prolong the uncertainty and confusion. Another is that the court may agree that the Oct. 1 deadline is appropriate.

In any case, the charter plan could be pursued for the 2026-2027 school year.

There are many issues related to this idea that deserve a dispassionate review, especially the potential impact on class sizes at other local schools and whether the approval of the charter school would lead to the close of University Park, Woodriver or Anne Wien elementary schools.

Meanwhile, the district is going to have to rewrite its budget in light of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s education veto.

“So we will now have to come back together, sit back down, and find an additional $2.5 million in cuts to the district, which will be very painful,” School Board President Melissa Burnett told KUAC-FM.

One of the many ways the board could reduce spending is to increase class sizes throughout the district.

One of the things I’d like to see is a campaign to focus attention on the actions of the governor and some local legislators in recent years that have contributed to school closings, larger class sizes and the elimination of valuable school programs.

Reps. Frank Tomaszewski, Mike Prax, Rebecca Schwanke, and Sen. Robb Myers all sided with Dunleavy in opposing a school funding increase this year.

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