• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Feb 9, 2010 - Page: 1BA

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LAFAYETTE — A local nonprofit organization is awaiting word whether or not its charter school application will be reconsidered by the Lafayette Parish School Board.

In December, the School Board denied the Outreach Community Development Corp.’s application to open a Type 1 charter school, Harvest Preparatory Academy.

The Opelousas group has proposed opening a charter school for students in grades 5 through 7 in July on the campus of N.P. Moss Middle School.

Charter schools are exempt from many of the normal requirements imposed on public schools in hopes that they will serve as educational laboratories.

The nonprofit group has challenged the School Board’s decision because the application was not reviewed by a third party — a requirement that became Louisiana law this summer.

“We are awaiting word back from the (Louisiana) Department of Education to see what our next step is going to be,” said Tiffanie Lewis, executive director of Outreach Community Development Corp.

Last month, Lewis requested that her group’s application be placed on the School Board’s agenda, but was told it would take a two-thirds vote of the nine-member board.

In turn, the school system is awaiting word on whether or not a two-thirds vote of the School Board may be needed in this case, said Lafayette Parish Superintendent Burnell Lemoine.

“We’re trying to find out if this is anything different than our normal procedure,” Lemoine said.

The system has not been contacted by the state Department of Education’s charter division about the incident, Lemoine said, and is awaiting word on the next step, as well.

Kenneth Campbell, director of the state Department of Education’s charter schools program, has not responded to three recent requests for comment, two telephone calls and one e-mail, from The Advocate.

The School Board first considered the nonprofit’s application at its Nov. 18 meeting and denied the application at its Dec. 2 meeting.

When reviewing the application, School Board staff consulted the state Department of Education’s charter division’s Web site for the most up-to-date regulations, Lemoine said.