By Jack Brammer
NKyTribune reporter
The Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents balked Tuesday at taking on the responsibility to oversee a charter school project for Northern Kentucky.
Board chair Rich Boehne asked three times at a special meeting if any board member wanted to make a motion to adopt a resolution to make NKU the so-called “authorizer” for the project to be in Kenton or Campbell counties.
Rich Boehne
But each time Boehne was greeted with silence, leading him finally to say no vote will be taken on the resolution. The board had until Jan. 1, 2023, to act on the resolution and Tuesday was its final meeting of this year.
State Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger, said he was not expecting the NKU board to decline to be the charter school overseer with the duties of reviewing, approving or denying charter applications, entering into charter contracts and renewing, not renewing or revoking charter contracts.
Koenig, who said he supports school choice, was a co-sponsor of House Bill 9 in this year’s General Assembly that created a pilot school charter program in Louisville and Northern Kentucky.
He said the NKU board’s decision “postpones, not kills” the charter school project in Northern Kentucky.
He said he believes the NKU board always could reconsider the resolution.
The law also calls for a substitute “authorizer” by requiring local school boards to put forward to members from each local board of a district located in a county that contains four or more local school districts.
Adam Koenig
Charter schools receive government funding but operate independently of the established state school system in which they are located. They are tuition-free for kindergarten through grade 12. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia currently have some form of charter schools.
Critics claim they siphon money from public schools.
At Tuesday’s NKU board meeting, chair Boehne said NKU was not included in negotiations on the charter school bill. The university spent $5,000 to change the language of the bill.
He said becoming an authorizer would be an additional job for the board to take on as it searches for a new president. NKU president Ashish Vaidya is to depart the university Dec. 19. The board said last month it and Vaidya determined the time is now for a leadership transition. The change occurs as the university faces a $24 million deficit.
Boehne also said he does not think House Bill 9 is workable. He said he has problems with its problems and startup costs. “This is incredibly serious stuff,” he said.
NKU’s Faculty Senate opposed the university’s becoming a charter school, saying that did not align with the university’s mission and vision and conflicts with its emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.
The legislation was opposed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear but the Republican-led legislature approved it.
NKU board chair Boehne said there is “good news coming out of this difficult process.”
“All parties on all sides of this effort have agreed to work together to seek the best ways to improve the education and lives of children in our community,” he said. “NKU, in its role as the largest provider of post-secondary education in our region, is determined to support this collaboration for the good of our entire region.”
The board’s decision not to vote on the charter school resolution came after the board heard from three people in support of the resolution: Greg Fischer, chair of Fischer Homes in Alexandria; Lynn Schaber, president of the Strategy Store in Newport; and Karen Finan, president and chief executive officer of OneNKYAlliance.
