MALDEN — Richard Alcorn has big plans for the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley. But for now, those plans will not exceed a maximum of 584 students.
The executive director joined nearly 50 school community members Tuesday in a 200-mile round trip to appeal a state decision denying the school’s request to nearly double its student body.
Alcorn said the trip was intended to speed up a desired outcome in which the Chinese charter school would be authorized to expand to 968 students in kindergarten through Grade 12. However, the board Tuesday declined to overturn State Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester’s decision to deny the expansion request.
In making his decision, Chester said that the school has not yet reached the number of students it is currently allowed. The decision, he said, could be revisited in the school’s next charter renewal, which will be determined in early 2017.
But the delay is a major disruption to the plan by school officials for a high school program. Alcorn said before the meeting that the school building is “maxed out” in terms of space, with its current enrollment of about 430 students. That is roughly 150 short of the existing maximum number allowed.
This leaves the school in what Margaret McKenna, a member of the state education board, called a “chicken and egg” scenario: The school is struggling to add more students — proving the need for expansion — because it has run out of space.
Amy DiDonna, a lawyer representing the school, said, “We as a community are going to put our heads together to try to figure out how we can best demonstrate what we know to be true,” she said. “Which is, that the growth demand is there.”