How the fate of Peoria's Quest Charter Academy schools will be decided this week

The fate of Peoria's Quest Charter Academy will be in the hands of the Illinois State Board of Education, which will vote this week on the school's appeal against Peoria Public Schools District 150.

The nine-member board will consider Quest's appeal at its May meeting Wednesday in Springfield, making the decision as to the final fate of the charter academy, which opened in 2010 for grades fifth through eighth. Its aim was to both provide choice to families dissatisfied with their options in Peoria and to build a new generation of students able to work in a variety of skilled jobs.

Quest now operates both a high school and middle school. If approved, the schools would remain in operation for the 2024-25 school year under ISBE's oversight.

More: After tragic wreck in Peoria, Dunlap teenager remembered as 'beautiful soul'

What happened between Peoria Public Schools and Quest?

Peoria Public Schools operated the charter agreement for Quest since 2014 and renewed it several times before voting in January not to go forward with another renewal, citing poor attendance, a bad student discipline level, a high rate of staff turnover and an inability to meet academic goals.

However, Quest leaders, such as executive director Dr. Taunya Jenkins and board president Glenn Ross, disputed the district's findings. They cited a report filed by an ISBE hearing officer that said while the schools did have issues with meeting goals, none of what Peoria Public Schools cited as reasons to deny their renewal was a good reason to end the partnership.

"The independent hearing officer for the state said that those allegations were arbitrary and capricious," Jenkins said. "That says out loud that the direction that the district was going in was not agreed (to) by the hearing officer. As far as she was concerned, we were making the progress that was needed, we were doing the things that needed to happen, we were making significant progress in all of the areas that we expected to have that growth in."

She said that during an appeal hearing on March 18, Quest officials showed that while it hadn't exactly been a smooth process – at least during the last two-year agreement between the district and Quest – they were doing well in terms of performance and that the board made a mistake when it came to closing the school.

"We were able to show that we're not perfect – no school is – but that our performance indicators are higher than many of the other schools that are in the district," Jenkins said. "Therefore, we should not have been voted to close, and it was arbitrary and capricious. That's from the mouth of the hearing officer."

The appeals process began in February, when the school filed an appeal with ISBE to reverse Peoria Public Schools' decision, with the public meeting allowing both sides to present their cases to the appointed appeal officer. The officer's recommendation to approve Quest's appeal was released on April 1.

For its part, the district said in a response to the report sent to the board on April 23 that the hearing officer had ignored the data but state law that governs how ISBE can reverse a school board's decision to not renew a charter agreement. State law says that ISBE can step in to renew a charter license if the school was both in compliance with the law and if it was in the best interests of the student body.

More: After 31 years as a Journal Star reporter and photographer, Leslie Renken says goodbye

Peoria Public Schools said that the officer had, on multiple occasions, pointed out incidents in which Quest was not in compliance with the state law regarding charter schools. She agreed with the district that Quest only met three of 11 criteria in terms of performance goals, that it fell below the 75% threshold agreed to for certification of staff, that there were documented problems in student discipline and transportation and that the declining enrollment may make the school non-viable in the future.

Still, the hearing officer said that the decision to deny renewal of the charter agreement for Quest was "arbitrary and capricious," citing a lack of consideration of the impact of COVID-19 on academic performance, the district's alleged lack of documentation for helping Quest find qualified staff members, a lack of concise data on behavioral interventions, the fact that any transportation issues were merely temporary and the lack of any violation regarding student enrollment.

With that in mind, the district said that "if the State Board finds Quest’s performance acceptable when viewed through that lens, then under what circumstances may any charter school in the State of Illinois be non-renewed?"

ISBE Superintendent Tony Sanders largely agreed with PPS, recommending that the board deny the appeal because Quest was not in compliance with laws governing charter schools in Illinois and that they had made a "material violation" of their charter agreement.

In a letter sent to the board before the meeting, Sanders said the school's testing proficiency had been mixed, rejecting the argument made by the hearing officer that the pandemic may have had an impact on student performance. He also said that PPS had admonished Quest on multiple occasions for not meeting the statutory staffing requirements.

Student performance up for debate

Ross said that the focus has remained on trying to provide the school's many services to students and families over the course of the weeks and months since PPS opted to end the partnership. He feels proud of the work being done by students despite the uncertainty. In particular, he cited the senior class of 32 students, which will graduate on May 30 with each member going to a four-year or two-year college.

ISBE lists Quest as a "commendable" under its system for measuring academic progress, with Jenkins saying that the hearing officer had a difficult time measuring up the district's cited reasons for non-renewal with the actual performance of the high school.

More: These are the top ranked Peoria-area high schools, according to new report

"It was very hard for the hearing officer to agree with the district that we should be closed when we're having some of the highest scores in the district," Jenkins said. "The data speaks for itself – when you look at the district, there's four public high schools and only one that's matching what we're doing.

When you look at our middle school and one of the schools that's performing higher than ours is the gifted school (Reservoir), where all students show up and their they're in that gifted category, that tells us that we are ranking in the highest in the area."

Ross feels that the impact of having ISBE approve Quest's appeal would be simple: the ability to continue operating, even without the oversight of the local school district.

"The children and families of Peoria would continue to have a choice for high-quality education and an option to attend Quest as opposed to other schools in the Peoria School District," Ross said.

As for the question of funding, Jenkins said that instead of having it come through District 150, ISBE would help them in terms of providing what they need to continue operating next school year.

"The funds always follow the children," Jenkins said. "It's not a matter of Quest funding, it's a matter of the state funding where the children are. Those dollars come directly to us based off of that formula already provided by the state. It just doesn't come through the district, it comes straight to us."

Ross remains optimistic that Quest will get a stay of execution from the state board, even going as far as having open enrollment ready to go in case the board votes in their favor.

"We're just looking forward to serving the students," Ross said. "We will have our open enrollment, assuming that things go in our favor, so we'll be looking forward to our next class in the fall."

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Quest Charter Academy appeal will go before state board this week