MERRIMACK – Nearly 70 students were wrongly denied their right to enter an admissions lottery for the Academy for Science and Design charter school this year, the school acknowledged in a letter sent to parents this week.

The school chalked up the error to “inadvertent human error,” though e-mails provided by parents whose children were rejected show they were told if their children didn’t score 70 percent on a math placement exam, they were not eligible to attend the school. Using placement test scores to deny students would be a violation of the school’s charter and possibly state law.

The school is offering guaranteed admission for the 2012-13 school year to any students who were rejected for the 2011-12 school year. These students won’t need to be placed in a lottery. Parents who feel their children were wrongly denied entrance to the school must contact the school by Sept. 30 in order to be guaranteed admission next year.

“The bottom line is we want to make right what we did wrong,” said Thomas Frischknecht, chairman of the school’s board of trustees.

Frischknecht said there were 68 students affected; 46 sixth-graders were wrongly denied admission to the lottery, along with 22 seventh-graders. The school is reaching out to parents to make them aware of the error, Frischknecht said. You can read the letter sent to parents at www.nashuatelegraph.com. Parents of those students will need to contact the school by the deadline to be guaranteed admission next year, he said.

Frischknecht said the issue came to the board’s attention last week when parent Janet Sukkar attended the meeting with her family and told the board her son had been denied admission because of his math placement test score. She provided correspondence to corroborate her claim, according to meeting minutes.

Sukkar declined comment Tuesday. She and other parents have provided e-mails they received from the school to The Telegraph, which clearly indicate their children were not admitted to the school because of their performance on the math placement test.

Mary Mattingly, director of admissions at the school, wrote in an April 5 e-mail that students who did not score 70 percent or above on the placement “will unfortunately be declined.”

“I am sorry to say that we will be unable to accept you as a student at the Academy for Science and Design for the 2011/12 school year,” Mattingly wrote in a follow-up e-mail, letting parents know their children had been declined. “I know that you tried your hardest and were hopeful to be here next year. I know that you are very disappointed.”

Mattingly is no longer the admissions director, Frischknecht said. There has been a reorganization at the school which was, in part, response to the admissions issue, but Frischknecht would not say whether Mattingly was part of that.

The Academy for Science and Design is one of 10 public charter schools in New Hampshire. With an enrollment of 288 students this year, it is the largest charter school in the state. The school features an advanced math, science, design and engineering curriculum. The school added sixth grade this year and runs until 12th grade.

Frischknecht said the board had heard concerns about admissions in June but never knew the specifics of the issue until last week.

State and federal law require that public charter schools must hold a lottery when more students apply than there are spaces. According to the letter sent home to parents this week, “some families involved in the process did not receive adequate communication from the school as to their right to request to have their child included in the admissions lottery, regardless of the student’s placement test results.”

“This lack of communication and the confusion or frustration it may have caused is something we regret and wish to apologize for,” the school wrote in its letter, co-signed by Frischknecht and David Chauvette, director of the school. Chauvette did not return a phone call Tuesday.

This was the first year in which applications to the school exceeded capacity. In its letter, the school wrote that it sought lottery procedures from the state Department of Education. That procedure was put in place, but “there was a glitch in the execution of the policy,” the letter states. “The glitch was an omission of communication. It was caused by inadvertent human error. It will not happen again.”

Frischknecht said the placement exam was intended to be used as a guide for the school and the parents. If students don’t score high enough, parents were supposed to be able to choose to enter the lottery, knowing their child may not be able to handle the advanced curriculum, he said.

“The problem is that did not happen for those students,” Frischknecht said.

Frischknecht said admitting the students this year this late in the summer was not an option because of space issues. The school is actively looking for a larger space for the 2012-13 school year, he said.

Since opening in 2007, students at the Academy for Science and Design have achieved some of the highest scores in New Hampshire on the New England Common Assessment Program, the state’s standardized test. Last year, 95 percent of students scored proficient or better in math; the same percentage scored proficient or better in reading.

The school’s charter requires it achieves measurable academic performance goals. For example, more than 75 percent of students must score proficient or better in math, science and reading. Charter schools must be reviewed every five years for their charter to be renewed. The Academy for Science and Design not yet received its five-year renewal.

The issue raises questions about the state Department of Education’s ability to oversee the charter schools it is authorizing, the number of which is expected to climb significantly. Last year, the state received an $11.6 million federal grant that could be used to create up to 20 additional charter schools.

The Telegraph alerted the state Department of Education about possible admissions issues at the charter school in June. On July 20, Commissioner of Education Virginia Barry said a review of the school’s admissions process found no evidence of irregularities. Barry did not return a phone call Tuesday.

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

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