The future of Kairos Academy, a West Valley charter school for young mothers and pregnant teens, will come down to two meetings in the first week of September.
After being forced to shut down by the State Charter School Board in July, Kairos administrators appealed the decision to the Utah Board of Education, which initially scheduled a hearing for August 29.
But the hearing has now been postponed until Sep. 5, board of education spokeswoman Emilie Wheeler said Thursday, narrowing the window between when the schools leaders make their case for continued operation and when state school board members are expected to ultimately vote on Kairos’ fate at their regular monthly meeting on Sep. 8.
“The school has encountered some bumps, but we are prepared to prove our case,” interim Kairos director Amy Trombetti said in a statement. “We want the opportunity to show improvements, with a new team of highly skilled administrators.”
The State Charter School Board ordered the termination of Kairos’ charter over budgetary and academic performance concerns that have persisted during the more than two years the school has been on probation.
After a preliminary closure vote in June, Kairos replaced its school director and added new members to its governing board, including recently appointed chairwoman Julie Adamic. Those changes were lauded by some charter board members, but a board majority voted to confirm the school’s closure.
With school’s access to public funding source effectively severed by the State Charter School Board closure vote, Kairos Academy has since launched an online fundraising campaign to finance legal representation during its appeal.
On Thursday, that campaign had raised $450 dollars from two donors.
“Any help we can get from the community with this legal battle will help keep Kairos open,” Adamic said Thursday, ”and keep this resource available for teen moms.”
Adamic said the delay until Sep. 5 came as a result of the school’s request for a new hearing officer — who moderates the appeal proceedings but does not vote on recommendations to the Utah Board of Education — over a perceived conflict of interest.
It’s a “Catch-22,” Adamic said, as a postponed hearing gives administrators additional time to prepare but also raises the prospect that a final vote will arrive too late to open the school for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Kairos Academy planned to resume classes on Monday prior to the closure vote, but administrators are now looking at ways to both start and end the year late if the school is allowed to reopen.
“It is a worry, but we felt it would be better in the long run to go ahead and request a new hearing officer,” Adamic said. “Either way, there‘s a positive and negative to any decision.”
Adamic said the school has lost one staff member, and that one student has formally transferred to another school for the new academic year. But the bulk of Kairos Academy’s roughly 90 students are expected to return to the school if allowed, she said, and additional referrals for new students are pending.
“It shows the great need and demand for this service in our community,” Adamic said.
