Ascension School Board denies proposed Rayborn Charter School application for the fifth time – The Advocate

DONALDSONVILLE The Ascension Parish School Board, following a consultant's recommendation, has denied the application of a charter school, for the fifth year in a row.

The organizers of the proposed Rayborn Charter School have applied unsuccessfully with the school district every year since the board's first no vote in January 2013.

GONZALES The Ascension Parish School Board on Tuesday rejected the application of a charte

During that time, they've also applied twice to and been twice denied by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

But, after the Ascension Parish School Board's denial of the Rayborn school's application Tuesday, organizers said they'll turn again to the state.

"The process for the application needs to be clarified" in the school district, Darryl Hambrick, president of the board of directors for the proposed charter school, said after the School Board meeting.

Consultant Kimberly Williams, owner of New Millennium Education of Baton Rouge, recommended that the board deny the school's application because of problems with the application in four areas: how students would be recruited to the school; how an arts integration model would be incorporated into traditional curriculum; how students' progress would be monitored, and how the school board would budget for educational software and for its special education students.

Ascension Parish currently has no charter schools, which are publicly funded independent schools usually run by private organizations.

Groups can submit their charter school proposal directly to BESE if a local school board fails to approve it.

The proposed Rayborn Charter School would serve low-performing students in grades kindergarten through five through a program of arts integration in the classroom, Jevella Williamson, who would serve as its principal, said before Tuesday's meeting.

"Arts integration has been proven to be effective not only for students from a low socio-economic background but for those from a high socio-economic background as well," Williamson said.

The school would be located in a building available on the campus of the Christian Assembly Full Gospel Church in Gonzales.

"I was born in this parish, a poor, poor, poor child with nothing," Eartha Rayborn, the founder of the proposed school, told School Board members before their vote.

"All 10 of us (children) finished college. Maybe this is the thing that makes me want to help children that are not progressing and need some help," said Rayborn, who was an educator for 35 years in the Ascension Parish school district, 19 of those years as a principal.

School Board member Lorraine Wimberly asked the board if there was a mentor available who could "lead and guide" the organizers of the Rayborn Charter School in its application process.

Superintendent David Alexander said there might possibly be a third-party vendor.

"Should the same person be looking at this again and again?" asked board member Julie Blouin, referring to consultant Kimberly Williams, who has handled the charter school's application since its first try before the School Board in January 2013.

"I'm sure the Rayborn organization has the right intentions and their heart is in the right place," board member Troy Gautreau said.

But, he said, "it's up to the charter applicant to provide all the information required."

The board voted 10-1 to deny the charter school's application, with Blouin voting against the recommendation to deny.

Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion.

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Ascension School Board denies proposed Rayborn Charter School application for the fifth time - The Advocate