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Community Academy of Philadelphia Headed To Court Over SRC Ruling

By Tim Jimenez

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted late last week to not renew the city's oldest charter school.

The SRC voted four to zero to begin the process of pulling the charter of Community Academy of Philadelphia, the first charter school established in the city in 1997.

Deputy Superintendent Paul Kihn said the academic performance was poor and the school had financial problems.

But School Founder and CEO Joseph Proietta says those issues don't exist.

"We have no knowledge of any comprehensive evaluation. They did not come out to the school, they did not visit us, they didn't look at our financials. They claim we were not in good financial health and yet we had an $800,000 surplus."

Community Academy has a case pending in Commonwealth Court dealing with the District based on a charter renewal vote in 2011.

Proietta says the District isn't letting the court do its job and if need be they'll take the case higher, "We will fight it if we have to go to the state supreme court."

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