Negotiations With The Corbett Charter School Association Regarding Lease Agreement by Randy Trani

Many of you may have read a communication from Corbett Charter School Director Bob Dunton regarding the Charter’s lease agreement with Corbett School District.  Last April the District shared, first with the Charter Association, and then with the public that the district would be critically examining the Charter Lease.  That correspondence can be found on the district web site. Corbett School District’s Commitment to ALL Students and Families.

Factors influencing the District’s consideration include:

  • Dramatic resident student growth (25% in the last 5 years) makes renting space for the long term untenable.

  • Filling available space with non-Charter students is dramatically more financially beneficial than the current lease agreement.

    Further, examination of facilities has made the District critically aware of the structural needs of our school population.  Renting space places additional limits on the District’s flexibility to address the structural needs.

    Finally, the District must also consider the relational cost/benefits of sharing space with the Charter School.

    Recently, the Charter Association presented a written proposal regarding a new lease agreement to the Board of directors.  On the 29th of January the Charter Director, Bob Dunton, met with me and the Board chair to discuss modifying the proposal. His one year lease proposal was presented to the the Board at the next scheduled Board meeting.  The Board acted with due diligence by considering the lease proposal and the four factors outlined in the previous paragraphs for more than two hours.

    Based upon that discussion of the proposal, the Board has offered to meet with the Charter School Director to conduct further negotiations. This meeting is likely to occur on Monday.  The Charter School has also been invited to present additional information to the Board at the school board meeting Tuesday night at 7:00 in the MPB.

    Throughout this process the District has been in contact with legal advisers, the OSBA, the ODE, and other organizations.  Based upon the advice of these entities, the District intends to move forward with this negotiation process in a fashion that will take into consideration the needs of the District relative to the District facilities.

    Families should be assured that throughout this process the District will endeavor to act in a way that is the best educational interest of all students, District and Charter.