NASHUA – The Board of Education signed off on moving forward with the development of a district-sponsored charter school Monday night, though a host of questions remain about governance, cost and necessity.

Nashua is one of the state’s first school districts to pursue the creation of a charter school. Administrators spent time earlier this year researching other charter school models and brought a proposed mission statement to the Board of Education on Monday night.

However, several board members questioned how the creation and operation of a charter school would affect the rest of the city’s schools. Board member Tom Vaughan raised concerns about the administrative resources it would drain from the district and whether there was truly a need for such a school.

“I’m not sure that we need this kind of Manhattan project to improve instruction in the district,” Vaughan said.

The mission statement proposes that the school will “serve as a laboratory for creative learning environments for teaching and learning which will over time be replicated to other learning environments for the benefit of all Nashua students.”

The board asked for clarification on the intent of the school and approved a working group that will spend the next nine months drafting a charter.

The charter will require approval by the local Board of Education, the state Board of Education, and potentially the Board of Aldermen.

Board member Steve Haas pointed to one of the guiding principles that said “learning would be highly personalized and engaging for each student.”

“I hope we’re doing that now,” Haas said. “I don’t know how that’s going to change in the charter school.”

Among other guiding principles would be to “foster innovative environments for student and staff learning without the constraints of traditional models of education.”

It would cater to students in grades four through eight. Nashua students would get priority.

The school would have to operate within existing or reduced resources, with a cost per pupil equal to or less than that of the entire district and a diverse enrollment similar to other city schools.

One of the questions raised by state Rep. Mary Gorman of Nashua was why innovative approaches to be tested at the charter school aren’t already in use in established public schools.

“If it’s based on sound research, why is it not being done in our classrooms now?” asked Gorman, a Democrat and member of the House of Representatives education committee.

Superintendent Mark Conrad said the charter school would be free from the constraints of state statutes, minimum requirements and collective bargaining agreements.

“This would give us the ability to be a little more flexible in how we define the structures students would be working in and the options open to them,” Conrad said. “They won’t be tied to 24 other students moving along at the same pace.”

There were also general questions about how funding would work, as far as whether the students would be considered enrolled in the Nashua School District or a separate school. However, Conrad made it clear there would be no additional cost.

If approved by the Board of Education, the school would be operated by an independent appointed board of trustees. School board member Dennis Ryder questioned how an unelected board could operate a public school with taxpayer money.

“I suspect there may be a clash here between the city charter and state law,” Ryder said.

Conrad said that while the school board’s leverage would be in the development of the mission statement and approval of the charter, the responsibility of operating the school and meeting the charter would be out of the board’s control.

“There would be an element of risk and an element of trust,” Conrad said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

If the district were to open a charter school, it would be eligible for up to $500,000 from an $11.6 million federal grant New Hampshire received to help pay for starting new charter schools. The earliest the school could open would be the 2013-14 school year.

Michael Brindley can be reached at 594-6426 or mbrindley@nashuatelegraph.com.

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