Classes at Midland Innovation and Technology let out for the summer on June 6. Just over a month later, on July 30, students were informed their school would not reopen for the fall, leaving families frustrated and scrambling. “You can’t give parents 20 days to figure out where their kids are gonna go. Education is important. That is what they were standing by. Obviously you didn’t show me that education was important to the kids because you just left them in the middle of nowhere,” said Chrissy Alvarado, whose daughter was set to be an upcoming sophomore at Midland. Instead of preparing for her upcoming year, Chrissy’s daughter is now going through an entirely separate admissions process for Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center. This is now the reality for many families after the announced closure. “It was really a difficult decision, but unfortunately, we just weren’t able to keep the school open. The numbers never really got to the point where it looked like it was going to be sustainable to keep the school open. We would have loved to get beyond the 200-student threshold. That’s always the number that we talked about with the board being important to get to,” said Jordan Shuber, the solicitor at Midland Innovation. On the other hand, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center says they are ready to adapt to the new potential influx of students they anticipate seeing in just 15 days. “We have to pretty much throw out all the plans that we had, that we made a couple of weeks ago, and we have to start more or less from scratch,” said Dan Leroy, the dean of arts of Lincoln Park.Leroy says they aren’t sure how many students they are actually expecting just yet. But he knows for certain that the school will find a place for them. “We’re gonna make it flexible this year because of Midland, because again, you always have a number that you target and that number is not just applicable to our arts classes, but also to our academic classes,” said Leroy. Midland hosted a special agenda meeting for families and staff to share their feelings and ask questions. Many voiced their frustrations with the situation. “I have no where to go, and you just screwed over my furutre. I had my college plan. I had my plan after college, and now I have nothing because you don’t care about your students,” one student said during the meeting. The solicitor said, at the end of the day, they were out of money. They needed at least 200 students enrolled to become self-sufficient, but they only had 90 enrolled for the fall. He said they tried to partner up with other charter schools, but it did not work out. Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.Looking for more news in your area | Subscribe to the WTAE YouTube Channel
Classes at Midland Innovation and Technology let out for the summer on June 6. Just over a month later, on July 30, students were informed their school would not reopen for the fall, leaving families frustrated and scrambling.
“You can’t give parents 20 days to figure out where their kids are gonna go. Education is important. That is what they were standing by. Obviously you didn’t show me that education was important to the kids because you just left them in the middle of nowhere,” said Chrissy Alvarado, whose daughter was set to be an upcoming sophomore at Midland.
Instead of preparing for her upcoming year, Chrissy’s daughter is now going through an entirely separate admissions process for Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center. This is now the reality for many families after the announced closure.
“It was really a difficult decision, but unfortunately, we just weren’t able to keep the school open. The numbers never really got to the point where it looked like it was going to be sustainable to keep the school open. We would have loved to get beyond the 200-student threshold. That’s always the number that we talked about with the board being important to get to,” said Jordan Shuber, the solicitor at Midland Innovation.
On the other hand, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center says they are ready to adapt to the new potential influx of students they anticipate seeing in just 15 days.
“We have to pretty much throw out all the plans that we had, that we made a couple of weeks ago, and we have to start more or less from scratch,” said Dan Leroy, the dean of arts of Lincoln Park.
Leroy says they aren’t sure how many students they are actually expecting just yet. But he knows for certain that the school will find a place for them.
“We’re gonna make it flexible this year because of Midland, because again, you always have a number that you target and that number is not just applicable to our arts classes, but also to our academic classes,” said Leroy.
Midland hosted a special agenda meeting for families and staff to share their feelings and ask questions.
Many voiced their frustrations with the situation.
“I have no where to go, and you just screwed over my furutre. I had my college plan. I had my plan after college, and now I have nothing because you don’t care about your students,” one student said during the meeting.
The solicitor said, at the end of the day, they were out of money. They needed at least 200 students enrolled to become self-sufficient, but they only had 90 enrolled for the fall.
He said they tried to partner up with other charter schools, but it did not work out.
Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.
Looking for more news in your area | Subscribe to the WTAE YouTube Channel
