Winona role for charter schools revoked

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Fed up with years of lax oversight of two charter schools, the state Education Department revoked the Winona School District’s status an authorizer for charter schools. The state had pushed the Winona schools to take corrective action for four years. Among deficiencies listed against the Winona district were insufficient monitoring of the charter schools and inattentiveness to complaints. The revocation puts Bluffview Montessori School and Ridgeway Community School in a lurch. Law requires charter schools to have a sponsor, or, in school-ese, an “authorizer.” State charter school supervisor Paula Higgins said Bluffview and Ridgeway have a year to find a new authorizer or be shut down. Thirteen other public school districts in the state remain authorizers.