Massachusetts lawmakers condemn state approval of West Springfield charter school, ask Gov. Baker to step in
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WEST SPRINGFIELD -- Just as city officials were celebrating a string of success stories in West Springfield Public Schools -- teachers being recognized for excellence and the High School attaining its lowest dropout rate and highest graduation rate ever -- the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a new charter school for West Side, casting a pall over the celebratory mood.
The news didn't sit well with Mayor William C. Reichelt, who believes opening a West Springfield branch of the Chicopee-based Hampden Charter School of Science will have a "deleterious impact" on city public schools and lead to higher taxes.
Sen. James T. Welch and Rep. Michael J. Finn, the Democratic state lawmakers who represent West Side on Beacon Hill, are also opposed to a charter school opening in town. Both legislators have raised concerns about the lack of public input before the plan was approved by the state.
Prior to approval, Welch and Finn had voiced concerns to Jeff Wulfson, acting commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Now, they're taking their concerns to Gov. Charlie Baker to see what, if anything, he can do to remedy the situation.
"The process by which this decision was made did not take into account the voice of West Springfield's public school officials, parents, or teachers, the majority of whom opposed this move," Welch and Finn wrote in a letter to Baker this week.
All indicators had pointed to Westfield as the community most likely to host a new branch of the Hampden Charter School of Science, or HCSS. The only public hearing to take place on the issue was held at Westfield State University, according to Welch and Finn, noting that "financial burdens" prompted HCSS officials to pull out of Westfield at the last minute and set their sights on West Springfield.
In West Side, HCSS has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield for 475-485 Main St., a 3.3-acre property that was formerly home to Immaculate Conception-St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. HCSS officials say the Chicopee school will now be referred to as HCSS-East, while the West Springfield site will be known as HCSS-West.
Because the only area public meeting about the charter school plan was held in Westfield, "West Springfield stakeholders missed out on the opportunity to voice their concerns and present an argument on why West Springfield would not be a proper host community for the charter school," Welch and Finn said in their letter to the governor.
"After it became public knowledge that HCSS-W was trying to relocate to West Springfield, there was not one public hearing and a public commentary period of only two weeks, in which dozens of residents emailed the commissioner to only receive a generic, premeditated response in return," the lawmakers said.
"In short, we feel there was no true public commentary period and that the conversations with acting Commissioner Jeff Wulfson were more of a courtesy than a genuine conversation," they said. "It is wholly unfair to the students of West Springfield to see their schools lose funding on something over which the town had no say."
Wulfson visited West Springfield on March 9, joining Reichelt, Welch, Finn and Tarkan Topcuoglu, the leader of HCSS, for a tour of the Main Street site. Missing was Superintendent Michael J. Richard, who was unaware of the tour, according to Welch and Finn, who referred to his absence as "a massive oversight."
On March 26, the legislators received a copy of a March 9 letter from Topcuoglu to Wulfson stating that HCSS would not seek any transportation reimbursement from the state for the 2018-19 school year. The letter was dated "the same day we took the tour," Welch and Finn said.
"This offer was not brought up to us or the mayor during the visit," the lawmakers said. "It is these types of actions that make us believe that this decision was made up beforehand, and all other steps were nothing more than a formality before granting HCSS-W the ability to move to West Springfield."
Meanwhile, both Welch and Finn commended West Springfield Public Schools for "continually improving from year to year," including the district's high graduation and low dropout rates.
HCSS coming to West Side "completely disregards the tremendous work being done by West Springfield's teachers and students and threatens to jeopardize the recent success the district is seeing," they said. "Simply put: The public school system is working perfectly in West Springfield and there is no need to fix what is not broken."
The strides being made in city public schools, coupled with "overwhelming opposition among teachers, parents and students" to HCSS, precludes the need for a charter school in West Side, said Welch and Finn. Both lawmakers have vowed to "continue to work with state and local officials to ensure West Springfield Public Schools do not lose any funding."
Another area of concern for Mayor Reichelt is the book "Empire of Deceit: An Investigation of the Gulen Charter School Network," which alleges that HCSS and similar Massachusetts charter schools in Everett and Saugus have connections to Apple Education Services of New Jersey and Ace It Education of Boston. Both of these entities have alleged ties to Fethullah Gulen, a controversial Turkish cleric and multibillionaire who lives in Pennsylvania.
Gulen has been accused of trying to destabilize Turkey and overthrow its democratically elected government from the safety of his 26-acre gated compound in the Pocono Mountains, where he has lived for almost two decades.
Gulen has denied any part in a July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, which the Turkish government has blamed on the "Gulen movement" -- a designated terrorist organization, according to the Republic of Turkey.
Topcuoglu, who will now serve as CEO of both the Chicopee and West Springfield schools, says HCSS has no financial ties to Gulen, a moderate Muslim imam, or any of the charter schools affiliated with the cleric.
"We are an independent public school," Topcuoglu told The Republican / MassLive.com earlier this week. "We are not a religious school at all. It's not the purpose of this school. We are a college prep school."
HCSS-West is slated to open in September in West Springfield.
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