Fairbanks school district plans to take the state to court over charter school dispute

District says it will challenge the Alaska Board of Education’s approval of a new charter school after the district denied the application

Pearl Creek Elementary School is seen on June 3, 2025. The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District decided to close the school at the end of the academic year. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

By Corinne Smith

Alaska Beacon

Members of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District school board say the district will take the state to court in a dispute around its authority to approve and establish new charter schools.

The district is challenging the Alaska State Board of Education for its approval of a new charter school after the locally elected board unanimously denied the application. The Fairbanks board cited a wide array of problems with the charter proposal, as well as millions in costs to reopen a school it closed last year to address a severe budget deficit.

But the group behind the charter school, Pearl Creek STEAM, appealed to the state, and the governor-appointed State Board of Education approved the new charter school on April 29, saying the application was sufficient. 

While the appeal process for new charter schools is in state statute, officials with the district had concerns about the state’s process and whether the state should be overriding local control to create new charter schools. 

The state approval would overrule the local board’s denial of a new charter school — requiring the district to approve the charter and establish the school in less than four months, to open in August. 

The state approval of a charter school over objections by a local district is highly unusual, said Lisa Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators. 

“It is my understanding that it’s the first time the state board has imposed a charter school on a district,” she said by email on Monday. “I’m not aware of any court case that has occurred in the past eight years at least on a denial or overturning of a charter school decision.”

The board announced at a May 4 meeting it plans to appeal the decision in state court. 

New charter school under dispute

Charter schools are tuition-free schools that are publicly funded but independently run based on a “charter” contract that allows for alternative educational offerings from traditional district schools. In Alaska, there are currently 32 charter schools.

The group behind the school, Pearl Creek STEAM — focused on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics — say there has been an interest in the focus for decades, and it has a wide base of family and community support for establishing the school.

The new charter school proposes serving roughly 350 students from kindergarten through sixth grade.

The Fairbanks school board members unanimously voted in October to reject the application for a new charter school at the former Pearl Creek Elementary School, which was one of three schools closed last year due to address a roughly $16 million dollar deficit. 

In a 52-page written decision, board members raised a wide range of concerns including with the applicant — known as an Academic Policy Committee — and its plans for facilities, student instruction, transportation, school meals, the budget and others. “It appears likely not just that the APC’s vision may not be implemented, but that the proposed school could fail entirely,” they wrote. 

Bobby Burgess, president of the Fairbanks school board, said in an interview Thursday that the board’s opinion hasn’t changed.

“We highlighted several legal errors, parts of the application that we believe did not follow state law, as well as technical errors, and that included problems with the math and the budget,” he said.

Opening the new charter school would also cost the district an estimated $2.8 million. 

But in a 15-page written decision the state Board of Education in April found the charter application was in compliance. The decision affirmed Education Commissioner Deena Bishop’s review and approval of the application in January, after the group behind the charter school appealed to the state.

Burgess said the district is appealing the state’s approval in court, arguing the state board did not thoroughly evaluate the application and made a decision in executive session without a public vote. He said instead the board issued the approval, seeming to rubber stamp the application as complete, rather than evaluate on its merits. 

“If there was something written in every section, then, in their opinion, that constitutes an application that is worth that should be approved regardless of whether the contents actually make sense, or regardless of any flaws that might be in the contents,” he said. “So that’s ultimately what guided our decision was that we believe that their decision was made in error.”

Charter proponents say proposal is sound

The group behind Pearl Creek STEAM has rejected the local school board’s evaluation as incomplete and not based on law or “substantial evidence.”

Jennifer Redmond, a parent and treasurer of Pearl Creek STEAM, said in an interview Friday she and the school’s supporters are disappointed with the district’s decision to take the issue to state court. 

“We had worked really hard, and had multiple reviews of the application that was a sound, legal and strong application for a charter school. And we had a lot of families that had already applied to the school, and were looking forward to opening it in the fall,” she said. 

Redmond said the group has developed robust plans for a STEAM-based curriculum, instruction and facilities plan at the former Pearl Creek school site. She said they planned to work with the district and within the district-wide system for services like school nutrition and transportation. Redmond pointed to declining enrollment as a major issue for Fairbanks, and noted roughly 20% of the applicants for the new school would transfer from homeschool or private schools, adding students to the district.

Redmond said since the state’s approval of their appeal, they saw a surge in interest and student applications. She said they’ve received roughly 325 student applicants for 352 places.

“While I understand that we’re also talking about local control, local control is also for parents, teachers and community members to come together and put together a charter school that’s been enshrined in state law to create innovation in the public school system,” she said. 

Redmond said the group is prepared to defend their application in court, but would rather work with the district to move forward in establishing the new school in the fall.

“We’re also always prepared to collaborate at any point, to sit in a room and discuss this and really come to an understanding,” she said. 

Questions of cost to open charter, after school closures

Burgess, with the Fairbanks school board, said the district is concerned about the cost of opening the new school on such a short timeline, and sees the potential financial impacts district-wide. 

“The costs to the district are significant,” he said. “It would require significantly scaling back the investments that we were able to make in this year’s recommended budget, which included things like behavioral support, aides in elementary school, music programs districtwide for elementary school and ELP — Extended Learning Program — teachers for elementary, and then just, of course, the reduction in class sizes.”

Redmond, with the Pearl Creek STEAM school, said the district has the budget to fund the new school, and sees the enrollment of new students as a boost to the district, as well as providing new educational opportunities to Fairbanks students. 

Redmond cited the school district’s $2.6 million budget surplus this year. The district achieved the surplus after it closed three elementary schools to address a $16 million budget shortfall last year. 

But Redmond said the district drafted the budget, knowing the appeal could be approved. 

“They knew there were going to be possible changes coming forth, one of which would be this charter school,” she said. “They had plenty of time to plan for this possibility.”

District to appeal the state’s approval decision in court

Burgess said the district has yet to file the appeal in state court, and expects the process of establishing the school will be put on hold as the court case progresses.  

As of Monday, the appeal had not yet been filed in state court. 

Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said in a statement Friday the department was aware of the legal challenge, but had not yet received formal notice of an appeal. Bishop defended the state’s approval of the application. 

“Alaska law requires that a charter denial be supported by substantial evidence and grounded in statute and regulation. The decision was based on the governing legal requirements and the administrative record before it,” she wrote. 

Bishop said the state will defend the decision through the appeal process in court. 

“The Department is charged with following the laws set forth by the Legislature and will abide accordingly, to any requirement of participation in due process if and when presented with such,” she wrote. 

Burgess said the board recognizes the state’s authority and the legal system of checks and balances in reviewing charter school applications. 

But Burgess said the Fairbanks board has had dozens of emails from supporters and officials in other districts, recognizing the larger issue of the state’s decision as potentially setting a precedent for the governor-appointed state board overruling locally elected school boards. 

“Essentially, what they’re saying is that any group that turns in a charter application and puts in something relevant in every box in that application deserves a charter school, regardless of the flaws in the application or the effects to a district and its overall operations and finances,” he said. “That’s a precedent that is worth fighting.” 

Burgess said the board recognizes the process is difficult for the community, amid several consecutive years of budget cuts and changes across the district. 

“It’s tough. We understand that there’s a number of people who have been working on that charter, who are hoping that their kids can go there and you know, and the closure of the school in the first place, of course, caused a lot of stress and pain for people in this community,” Burgess said. “But we also have the greater the district as a whole is our responsibility, and we have to keep that in mind.”

• Corinne Smith started reporting in Alaska in 2020, serving as a radio reporter for several local stations across the state including in Petersburg, Haines, Homer and Dillingham. She spent two summers covering the Bristol Bay fishing season. Originally from Oakland, California, she got her start as a reporter, then morning show producer, at KPFA Radio in Berkeley. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.