ST. LOUIS • As a former teacher, Louis Jones grew frustrated as she watched her grandsons struggle at their district school in the College Hill neighborhood.
ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ weren't being challenged, Jones said, and they acted up in class. "I wanted something better," she said.
She enrolled the three of them at Imagine Academy of Academic Success, a charter school that opened in 2007 across the street from her house. She says the school, with its girls-only and boys-only classrooms, has provided a good fit for her grandsons.
"The teachers are excellent," she said.
That kind of endorsement has helped the Virginia-based Imagine Schools Inc. persuade thousands of parents and grandparents to enroll their children at its six charter schools in St. Louis. Imagine has done so year after year despite those schools posting among the worst standardized exam scores in the city.
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The popularity of the schools — even amid overall academic failure — expose what many regard as a paradox, one that shakes the very premise of charter schools.
Advocates of charter schools promised accountability when the independent public schools first came to St. Louis more than a decade ago.
Parents, they said, would simply abandon schools that didn't produce results. And charter school sponsors would swiftly exercise their authority to shutter failing charters.
But for the most part, neither has happened with the schools that Imagine operates in St. Louis.
Imagine is filling classrooms in the city, reporting an enrollment of 3,800 students — a population larger than some area suburban school districts.
Meanwhile, Missouri Baptist University — which sponsors and oversees Imagine schools in St. Louis — has only recently begun to set rigid timetables for demanding improvement.
Sponsors of charter schools in Missouri have resisted closing poor-performing charter schools, or even putting them on probation, out of fear of costly litigation. As a result, some charter schools may fail academically for years before any corrective steps are taken.
"Charter schools are supposed to be another option," said Rep. Tishaura Jones, D-St. Louis, a critic of Imagine who calls for stronger oversight laws. Yet, "they're allowed to continuously give poor results."
Parents and grandparents loyal to Imagine schools call such criticism unfair. They say their children show improvements that speak louder than any state test score.
But the pressure to take action against the schools is building.
Imagine has already come under fire in other states where it operates schools. In Georgia, the school board in Cobb County last month voted to close an Imagine school, citing financial problems and poor test scores. In Florida, Imagine Schools of West Melbourne has one year to improve after receiving an 'F' from the state.
In September, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay called for the closure of Imagine's schools here. Despite the Imagine schools' popularity with some parents, they aren't cutting it, he said.
"In the end, if the kids aren't learning, then there's a problem," Slay said.
That condemnation is shared by others who cite Imagine's failures as justification for rewriting charter school laws.
Complaints also have poured into the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from former Imagine employees and disgruntled parents.
And now, Missouri Baptist is gathering the documentation it needs to potentially take action.
MAKING PROGRESS
Parents hear about Imagine schools at fairs and at church rallies, from ads on the sides of buses and from their neighbors. Some are initially drawn to the impressive buildings and Imagine's bright logo with the sunshine.
Enrollment targets are met almost annually at Imagine Academy of Environmental Science and Math, a school with an indoor fish pond and nature exhibits in hallways.
But those aspects aren't what keep parents returning to Imagine schools.
About a dozen parents invited by Imagine to discuss their experience said they are concerned about the low test scores. But they see their own children making academic gains. They like the schools' warm environment, the teachers, and how administrators listen to their concerns.
"If I need to talk to the principal or teachers, I can reach them at any time," said Rhevonda Gamblin. Her daughter is in her senior year at Imagine College Preparatory Academy.
According to Imagine Schools Inc., 68 percent to 88 percent of students at its schools last year returned to those same schools this fall.
"Parents choose where they feel their children are comfortable," said Sam Howard, executive vice president of Imagine Schools. "We provide an environment that is warm, an environment that is stimulating, and an environment where there is learning."
For the most part, children at Imagine schools come from low-income families that cannot afford private school tuition. Until the first charter schools opened in the city in 2000, their options were a school in the city's struggling school system, or the limited number of slots available in county schools to African-American children as part of the desegregation agreement.
Frustrated with the lack of options, Maxine Johnson began home-schooling one of her daughters. Then she turned to charter schools — the now-defunct Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Academy, and later, Imagine College Preparatory Academy, where her daughter graduated in 2009.
At Imagine, "I saw her begin to really thrive," Johnson said.
Imagine executives point to the graduation rate at Imagine College Prep as a crown jewel achievement — 92.5 percent, according to the state. Eighty percent of those graduates were entering a 2-year or 4-year college or university.
But not all parents at Imagine schools are happy.
Felicia Campbell took her daughter out of Academic Success two years ago. Among other things, she was frustrated that teachers frequently had to buy their own supplies, she said, due to a lack of basic classroom resources.
"It was down to the point they didn't have pencils," said Campbell, whose sixth-grader now attends KIPP Inspire Academy, another charter school. "They didn't have paper."
CREATING A PAPER TRAIL
Few people have as big a say in the fate of Imagine Schools in St. Louis as Jim French.
As chairman of the education division at Missouri Baptist University, French has the most direct role in helping the university oversee the charter schools — as well as determining whether the university should close the schools for poor academics.
French said he and others at Missouri Baptist have considered probation for the six Imagine schools.
But the university needed documentation — the kind of documentation that could push the schools to either get better or close. The kind of records that Missouri Baptist has since compiled, committing Imagine to meet school improvement plans.
"I needed the signatures on there to say they saw it, they knew it, and they knew what they needed to do," French said. "We had to lay it out."
Now that those benchmarks are in place, French said, the Imagine schools must demonstrate improvement by mid-November or face probation.
"I'm going to have the university's legal advice in it," French said. "The president's going to make decisions too."
That reluctance isn't unusual for charter school sponsors.
"It's fear of litigation," said Doug Thaman, executive director of the Missouri Public Charter School Association. "It's fear of bad press. I know in some situations sponsors wrestle with the idea of closing a school that may not be performing but is still considered to be better than the other options available to those families."
Missouri Baptist has experience with the turmoil of charter school closings.
The university, based in Creve Coeur, began sponsoring St. Louis charter schools in 2006 when it agreed to replace Harris-Stowe State University as the sponsor of Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Academy, managed at the time by Imagine Schools Inc.
The following year, the founders of Ethel Hedgeman fought to sever ties with Imagine over money and enrollment, and finally did so in 2009. By the following year, the school was in such disarray the university's president said student safety was at risk and revoked the school's charter. Without a charter, a charter school cannot draw state funds to operate.
In five years, Missouri Baptist's role as a sponsor has evolved from a supporter to that of an overseer. It evaluates the schools every two years. Last year it used almost $344,000 from the state to offset the costs related to sponsoring the Imagine schools. The university's charter school staff have offices in Imagine Academy of Environmental Science and Math, 1008 South Spring Avenue.
Nevertheless, the university has been accused of being slow to get tough on its charter schools, and on Imagine Schools in particular.
In 2009 and 2010, the university accepted monetary donations from Dennis W. and Eileen Bakke, co-founders of Imagine Schools. The couple is listed in the university's MBU Magazine as donors of $5,000 to $49,999 both years.
The university would not release the exact amount of the donations. However, university spokesman Bryce Chapman said contributions from both years were closer to the $5,000 range and were part of a $10 million campaign.
Missouri law prohibits sponsors from accepting such gifts if strings are attached. Chapman said the Bakke donations came with no conditions.
"They certainly do not impede our ability to have a partnership with Imagine Schools," he said of the contributions. "There is no conflict in terms of how we sponsor those schools."
In 2010, Imagine Schools contributed $5,000 to Rep. Mike McGhee's senatorial campaign. The Republican legislator from Odessa, Mo., was serving as a board member at Imagine Renaissance Academy in Kansas City. As other board members were fighting to cut the school's ties with Imagine, and were successful in June, McGhee fought to keep Imagine as operator of the school's two campuses.
PRESSURE BUILDING
Missouri law gives sponsors the sole authority to revoke a school's charter. The state education department can pressure sponsors, but has no direct control over the schools.
This comes as a source of frustration to some in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, as the department fields complaints about Imagine schools.
In February, the department alerted sponsors whose charter schools were performing worse than their home school districts. The next month, the state sent letters to nine charter schools in St. Louis, six of them Imagine schools, notifying principals that their schools were in financial distress.
Rep. Jones said she plans to reintroduce next year tougher charter school legislation — a bill identical to one last legislative session. Her proposed measure would require charter schools to have performance contracts, and would allow the Board of Education to close a school not measuring up. It also would give the board authority to suspend a sponsor.
Thaman, of the Missouri Charter Public School Association, said any new law also needs to protect sponsors from litigation if they take action against failing charter schools.
"Supports need to be in place for sponsors to be able to hold schools accountable effectively," he said.
The pressure to take action against Imagine schools worries parent William Neal Sr., who believes his daughter may have ended up on the streets were it not for her experience at the schools. In 2009, she was attending Hazelwood East High School, had run away from her mother's home twice and was involved with gangs, Neal said. He heard about Imagine schools at a church rally and enrolled his daughter, who now lives with him.
"Now she's a B student," Neal said. "I throw my hands up and thank God."
