BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The state Department of Education has denied the application for a charter school in Bloomfield. The name of the school was to have been the Bloomfield and East Orange Conservatory Charter School and it was intended to serve a middle-school population from the Bloomfield and East Orange school districts. DOE Commissioner Kimberly Harrington made the denial Nov. 2 by letter to the principal founder of the proposed school, Darrell Shoulars, of Newark. The decision, she said, could be appealed through the Appellate Division of the Superior Court.
In its denial summary, the DOE gave four reasons for its response while saying “the summary is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the deficits that led to the denial of this application.”
The first reason was that the application did not explain how the proposed curriculum would meet state educational standards. The school had planned to use a computer-driven model to provide students with classroom lessons.
“In addition, the application does not specify the number of instructional minutes that would be allocated to online or virtual learning,” the summary said.
Staffing was the second area of concern.
The proposed school was only to instruct sixth-graders its first year and expand to include seventh- and eighth-graders its second year.
It was proposed that the school would have a student population of 160 students its first year and 480 with the two additional grades. The school was going to be an arts-oriented facility.
The denial summary was concerned that full-time, certified teachers, specializing in the areas of focus, would not be employed the first year.
Instead there were to be five part-time teachers “of various artistic specialties without including a substantial plan for attracting and retaining these teachers.” Their salary was to be $18,000 annually.
A third reason for the denial was that no evidence had been given that the school was even needed. A copy of a survey to gauge the need was included in the application but there was no information about how it was disseminated or if anyone responded. Enrollment had to be at least 90 percent of the proposed student population for a charter to be granted, the DOE said.
Lastly, the department said it did not think the proposed school would be financially viable during its first year because the proposed budget had no reserve funding and ran a deficit during the summer months.
Bloomfield Board of Education President Emily Smith said the board expected the denial but was still relieved by it.
“It sounds like a purely business opportunity for someone with no background in education,” she said.
Salary was also going to be an issue in getting qualified teachers, Smith said. She did not think many certified teachers would take the part-time salary being offered.
“He seems to be working in a business model without educational protocols,” she said.
Smith also did not think the charter school was needed, saying Bloomfield Middle School was doing great and it was not overcrowded.
BOE member Dan Anderson did not think Bloomfield needed another facility for middle school grades, either.
“This particular proposal didn’t show a need to fill a gap,” he said. “They erroneously said our fine arts aren’t good in the middle school and our use of technology wasn’t up-to-date. We have a one-to-one Chromebook initiative that has been praised by the state.”
He also did not think this school would attract certified teachers.
“That is generally an issue with charter schools,” he said. “They aren’t unionized. And in charter schools they don’t allow teachers to teach the way they want to.”
The curriculum as proposed, he said, would not allow teachers to teach because the curriculum was computer-driven and focused on test-taking.
Councilman Nicholas Joanow, who is co-liaison to the board of education along with Councilwoman Wartyna Davis for the township council, said he was very happy the state rejected the application.
“It had the potential of transferring up to $3 million from the district to a charter that would be duplicating what the district already does quite well,” he said. “The key word here is ‘duplication.’”
Joanow, who is retired from Clifford J. Scott High School, in East Orange, said he spent 40 years in education.
“That gives me some credibility,” he said.
Shoulars, who was contacted by telephone Friday, Nov. 17, and agreed to be interviewed at a later time, did not return any subsequent messages requesting an interview.
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