Henry Baustad left his school in March, and now the school has left him.
“It just makes me sad,” said the 7-year-old Woodbury boy, who made one last visit to his school on a rainy Wednesday morning. The Natural Sciences Academy in St. Paul Park is closing permanently because officials said it was not teaching students properly.
“The kids are already heartbroken at what they are missing this year,” said his mom, Adina Baustad. “We cannot take this magical school from them.”
The school has been on probation for six years. Officials say the first-through-fifth graders are not learning enough. It’s best for the children, they say, to send them to more successful schools.
But some angry parents say the test scores have recently bounced back. They have launched a crusade, with a 2,000-signature petition and a letter-writing campaign. They want the school’s sponsors to give them another year, to find new sponsors.
“Who are these people? How do they get to shut us down?” said Baustad, gazing at the empty benches of the outdoor classroom. “How can they say what’s best for our kids?”
ESTABLISHED IN 2008
The 85-student school was established in 2008. Like every Minnesota charter school, it required what was formerly called a sponsor to make sure the school was run properly.
The sponsor is now called an authorizer, and the school’s authorizer is the Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center in Sandstone, Minn.
Erin Anderson, the group’s director of Charter School Authorizing, said that the school’s test scores show failure in teaching reading, math and science.
The school was placed on a three-year probation in 2014, and again in 2017. Osprey sent a warning letter on March 13, saying the “students are receiving neither the education promised nor what they deserve.”
On April 29 Osprey announced that it would close the school permanently at the end of the school year.
Students were already absent because of the coronavirus pandemic, so the letter meant they wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye to teachers or friends.
Parents asked why the group could not delay the closure by a year, to give them time to find another authorizing agent.
That would be illegal, said Anderson. State rules will not allow a school on probation to “authorizer shopping,” she said. “That’s when a struggling school transfers to a new authorizer to avoid accountability.”
CONTRACT NOT RENEWED
Schools must first correct their problems, and only then may look for another authorizer. But if the authorizer doesn’t renew a contract — which is what Osprey has done — then the school must be closed, said Anderson.
Such an action is rare, said Anderson. The group, which authorizes 35 charter schools, has cut ties with two schools since 2010.
Kendra Hunding is the school’s lead teacher, which is the closest thing it has to a principal.
She said the test scores dipped in recent years, but have snapped back this academic year. On a 100-point scale of academic performance, the school this year beat the goal of 50 with a score of 61.
“How can they do this to us,” she said, “after we made our goals?”
Alexis Loftness said her son has blossomed at the school. With a student-teacher ratio of 6-to-1, the school gives him plenty of attention, she said.
FINDING A NEW SCHOOL
The strain of suddenly finding a new school — when many parents are forced to find new jobs — is “horrifying,” she said.
“For Audubon to look at past performance — and discredit the many improvements the staff and children have worked so hard to achieve — is inhumane,” she said.
Seven-year-old Henry came back for a last look at the school on Wednesday. “I feel sad. I don’t know why it’s closed,” he said.
Another son, Eliot, was signed up to attend kindergarten in the fall. She must now find another school for both of them. And to top it off, she is a registered nurse who battles coronavirus every day, she said.
“It blows our minds, they would do this right now, during the pandemic,” said Baustad. “It seems like there are so many allowances and forgiveness right now. Why not wait? Why not give us another year?”