North Penn School Board said no to funding a charter school in the school district that set its sights on opening down the street from St. Stanisalus Parish School.
Montgomery Flex wanted to educate students in grades seven through 12 in an online curriculum.
It wanted to rent out the former SuperFresh/Clemens location at Hillcrest Shopping Center.
It wanted to save parents $15,000 a year in tuition.
North Penn School Board - minus Rick Miniscalco and Joseph Sullivan - said "No thanks."
Under Pennsylvania law, a charter school would be an independent public school operating under a charter from the North Penn School Board of Directors.
A charter can be granted for no more than five years by a school board, at which time it must be rechartered for another five years and so on.
North Penn would pay a per pupil cost for each student that would attend the charter school. The district would also provide transportation for those students.
According to solicitor Jack Dooley, the main reason the board rejected the application is because the school had a cyber charter. This charter must come from the state, not the school board.
Although it held an informational meeting, and had about 75 students enrolled, with 40 eligible, it didn't show support form the community, according to Dooley. Montgomery Flex also failed to prove its curriculum, Dooley said.
Tim Sager is the former director of school development for k12 Inc. and is currently a consultant to Montgomery Flex. Sager recently resigned from k12 Inc. in order to dedicate time to seeing the application through.
k12 Inc. provides curriculum to schools and manages schools. The Montgomery Flex coalition is comprised of about 10 individuals, including a professor from Arcadia, teachers, a grant writer and real estate professionals.
Sager said they did propose a curriculum for Montgomery Flex. He said a curriculum was presented from three different vendors. North Penn's objection was that we did not pick one, Sager said.
"When we apply next time, we will have one curriculum source identified and fully explained in the application, and one school location selected with a fully disclosed lease agreement," he said.
The school board also thought its financial plan was unsustainable, according to the article.
Montgomery Flex had plans to rent out the former vacant SuperFresh at Hillcrest Shopping Center - nothing was finalized.
According to the article, Montgomery Flex had to state where it will be located, not where it might be located.
School board member Tim Kerr was quoted as saying, Montgomery Flex was taking a "leap of faith" to approve the application and that its program would "impact the whole community and a bunch of students."
Kerr said the board would approve the plan if Montgomery Flex had a "working plan" that had more than 30 people behind its cause.
Sager said he was "stunned" following the meeting, according to reports.
Sager said the school was not a cyber school, and denied needing a building approval.
Sager said a for-profit company will not manage the school. While Montgomery Flex will purchase curriculum from a for-profit publishing company, the management will be under the direct supervision of a non-profit board of directors, he said.
There were always regarding the charter school.
Click the links above the story to find out more about Montgomery Flex.
You can also follow its progress and .
Let the NP School Board use the money that would have been spent on the Charter school to get more computers for the schools they already have in place.