Citing a recently released report examining allegations of racial bias in Philadelphia charter authorization and closure, the charter school’s lawyers said the hearing officer, Rudy Garcia, must go.
Officials at Franklin Towne Charter High School, shown in this May file photo, have sued the Philadelphia School District to force a change in the hearing officer set to begin proceedings in a nonrenewal hearing. Charter school officials point to a recently-released report that says the while the district has not committed overt bias against Black-led charter schools, it should vary hearing officers to avoid the appearance of bias.
Franklin Towne lawyers said the school asked Garcia to recuse himself voluntarily, and he refused. Then, they said, they asked the school board to remove Garcia, and after the board refused, they filed suit late Monday.A spokesperson for the school board declined to comment. A pre-hearing conference is scheduled for Wednesday, in what is only the first stage in the charter revocation process: Following hearings, the school board will have to vote on whether to revoke Franklin Towne’s charter.
Students in majority-Black zip codes were particularly disadvantaged by the lottery, which accepted students from 22 zip codes, but not 17 other city zip codes, The Inquirer found. In moving to revoke the school’s charter, the charter schools office in August found Franklin Towne hadn’t just appeared to have excluded students from January’s lottery,— with no students accepted from five majority-Black zip codes in West and Southwest Philadelphia during at least three of the four years reviewed.
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