Here we go again.

Last year, new charter schools coming to Camden were holding recruiting sessions at Rutgers-Camden before the schools were approved or announced. This year, Camden residents are again the last to know about new schools. 

It’s not exactly an industry secret that Mastery and at least one other charter are expanding in Camden next year, and KIPP will be soon if not in the fall. But it is problematic that those schools are telling partners, pushing press releases, and in at least one case, even hiring staff, before the new schools are announced here in Camden, and before the community has a chance to discuss the expansion. 

Let’s start there. Close to a year ago, Camden School District Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard announced that even though 10 schools had been approved by the state:

“We’ve made clear that these schools have been approved to expand, but we also made clear that this will be a year-to-year process,” Rouhanifard noted.

“It’s a complex process that has two critical components: One, how are those schools doing and two, what are the district’s needs?”

The superintendent said the district could make a case for Renaissance schools to expand two to three years down the road, if they are performing at a high level and if the district does not see improvements in its own schools.

“But if we see meaningful improvement in our district schools, we will certainly work with the state to curtail the growth plans (for Renaissance operators),” Rouhanifard added.

Except, local charter schools are already talking about their expansion, before year one test scores are in (or the tests even taken), and before we get a chance to see how traditional schools are faring. Instead of the promised “process,” here is what we are seeing.

A KIPP press release from October states:

“By the year 2020, TEAM will have 10 schools in Newark and five schools in Camden, providing needed world-class college preparatory education to over 4,500 students in Newark and 2,800 in Camden – representing 10% of the children in Newark’s public schools and over 20% of those in Camden.”

That isn’t a “process.”

Mastery is already telling those within their network that they’ll be opening two new schools (likely takeovers from what I’m hearing).

That isn’t a “process.”

A third charter, which I’m not going to name here, is not only opening a high school, but has already hired the principal. 

That isn’t a “process.”

This isn’t an expansion “process,” it’s a misuse of power. The Camden School District has engaged in listening tours, open board meetings, student surveys, and sit-downs with parents and students. It has never asked if the community wants this expansion. There has been no public process, just as there were no public meetings addressing the schools that opened this year.

I was at the Camden Commitment announcement, where hundreds of residents came to provide their input, and were never asked. The next board meeting saw community activists locked out because the venue was too small, the district didn’t imagine so many would come out to oppose and protest their plan.

They learned quickly. The District has the power to decide what questions will be addressed by participation. And, amazingly, the issue of school closure and expansion just never comes up. Parents are encouraged to come learn about new schools, but never given a voice in the decision about whether these schools should come in the first place. That is the power of privilege, to decide on what issues a community can even provide input.

I’ve repeatedly asked the school district what the community hypothetically needed to do to demonstrate opposition enough to a new school opening or a traditional school closing to change the district’s mind. After 18 months of faux-participation, we have the answer.

There is nothing community members can do.

They are not legally allowed to vote for the school board, as is standard practice across the country. They are not legally allowed to vote to approve or reject charter applications, as is now done for Philadelphia turnarounds. The District has steadfastly refused to specifically ask for input on charter expansion or school closure in its survey tools. Camden residents have been overwhelmingly opposed to expansion and school closures in Board of Education meetings, but they are told they are not representative of their communities. And hundreds of students protested the firing of their teachers and explicitly asked the District not to close schools. 

But none of these forms of participation count. And no forms that do count are allowed or elicited by the District.

Instead, Superintendent Rouhanifard will tell Camden residents, “if we see meaningful improvement in our district schools, we will certainly work with the state to curtail the growth plans (for Renaissance operators),” while simultaneously promising charter schools expansion behind closed doors.

Camden residents are always the last to know. So while charters look for their school leadership, Camden educators have to sweat out the semester not knowing if their school will be taken over, while losing the opportunity to apply for new schools. Residents who took the time to wait hours at board meetings are told they’re too angry or aggressive to have their opinions count, or are simply never allowed to give their opinion on closings or takeover. 

If the District was serious about listening to Camden residents, it would stop the faux-participation charade, and give a procedural opportunity for Camden residents to make decisions. Parents of a school would be given an opportunity to vote on whether the school would be taken over by a charter operator. Residents of the city would be explicitly invited to provide input into a school closure plan, then have the constitutional right to vote out the Board of Education if that body voted against the community’s wishes. 

Instead, we have a District that is happy to tell residents that there is a “process,” while making promises to KIPP, Mastery and others behind residents’ backs. Principals are hired, press releases pushed to the media, and school buildings promised to Renaissance and charter schools. Meanwhile, Camden residents are left out in the cold. That’s not an accident, it’s the power of privilege.