Union, nonprofit: Wakisha Charter School's budget woes were apparent months ago

The dire finances that prompted the Wakisha Charter School's decision Thursday night to close on Dec. 23 had been evident in September, according to union officials and a leader of an education nonprofit.

Board members said the North Philadelphia charter with 261 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders was closing because it was running out of money.

When angry parents asked why the board had allowed the charter to open for the school year, one officer said the board had thought there was enough money to run the school but was wrong.

But an unfair labor practice charge filed Wednesday by the union that represents the school's teachers, the AFT-PA affiliate Alliance of Charter School Employees, alleged Wakisha and the Philadelphia School Partnership had devised a plan to try to save the charter by bringing in another operator - provided the union that has represented the teachers since 2009 dissolved.

AFT-PA lodged the charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

The union alleges the partnership approached Wakisha this fall and offered to help it find a new operator so the school's charter would be renewed.

The union contends the partnership said it would provide $1.6 million so the school could operate this academic year but said the deal was contingent on scrapping the contract.

Candy Lerner, executive director of AFT-PA, said she learned of that arrangement during a meeting Sept. 19 with a lawyer for Wakisha.

The school attorney who met Lerner did not return calls seeking comment.

Mark Gleason, the partnership's executive director, categorically denied Thursday that his nonprofit had attempted to meddle with the teachers' collective-bargaining rights.

About the time school started in September, Gleason said, Wakisha contacted the partnership and asked for help finding a charter group willing to take over the school.

"We floated that idea to a few schools we've made grants to, and all identified the collective-bargaining agreement as an impediment," Gleason said. "We relayed that feedback to the board. To our knowledge, no charter ever engaged in serious consideration or conversations about taking over the school."

Gleason said the partnership's limited review of Wakisha's finances suggested it would take $1.1 million to cover the school's bills and estimated $500,000 more would be needed to cover transition costs if another charter group took over.

He said the partnership never promised to give Wakisha any money. He also said the union was not a problem for the partnership.

Source: Philly.com