Caldwell’s Heritage Community Charter School has been open for a year. And Thursday its board of directors heard harsh criticism from Idaho’s Public Charter School Commission.
Commission members say they’ve never seen so many problems at one school, including the inability of the board to understand finances. Tamara Baysinger, the commission’s director, says it’s more complicated than just the board.
“I would hesitate to say the problem is only with the board, because there were a lot of factors involved," she says. "But it does appear that the board did not step up in time to recognize and deal with those problems.”
The board for example did not complete the process to get the school provisional accreditation. That means high school students who transfer to other schools may have to repeat some or all of their classes.
The charter school serves elementary through high school students. Members of Heritage’s board declined to comment.