After three hours of somewhat contentious discussion between the Hernando County School Board and Michael Maynard, an applicant for a charter school, the gifted, high-impact but controversial educator withdrew the application, claiming he (Maynard) and his “excellent” staff were ” blindsided” by the school board’s tough grilling in the nonvote workshop. Maynard’s comments suggested that he expected the school board to rubber stamp the application for the proposed Chehuntamo Advanced Performance High School for which he serves as chairman, since an evaluation team from the HCSD had previously approved the concept. Much to Maynard’s chagrin, the presentation to the school board morphed into what Maynard termed a “gotcha” moment given the hard-ball questioning by school board members at the workshop. “Chehuntamo” is the Seminole Indian word for “welcome” but it was not exactly a warm one for the proposed school.
The tough questions at the nonvote workshop on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017 were asked of Maynard and his lawyer, most of which had no specific answers forthcoming. This prompted the withdrawal of the proposed application from the official school board meeting later that night where it was certain to face a negative vote.
After Maynard, seeing the handwriting on the wall, said he was not presently going forward with the application for the proposed charter school, he did maintain that he would “go back to the drawing board’ in an attempt to address the many budget discrepancies and operational problems pointed out by the school board. “We will jump through the hoops,” he said. Maynard said he would file the application prior to February 2018, seeking the green light from the board to start the school sometime in 2019.
Maynard is an award-winning Pasco County high school Language Arts teacher who was placed on a 3-day suspension and faced a mandatory transfer in 2016 due to his teaching techniques being perceived as too abrasive by several of his students and their parents.
Maynard said of his teaching style, “I’m just trying to make them think for the first time.”
He retired in July 2016 before the Pasco School Board could act on the superintendent’s recommendation to terminate him after additional complaints of his behavior towards students and parents arose.
Now, he has now put together a group of educators who want to bring an advanced placement charter school to Hernando County near an unknown site close to the county line with Pasco County. According to the school’s governing board, Chehuntamo’s purpose is to provide “a rigorous accelerated learning program in Hernando County and beyond. We will be focused on students planning to attend a four year university immediately after completing high school. Moreover, we want to provide an educational experience that will make our students competitive at the best colleges and universities in the country. Ivy League will be common.”
However, additional homework must be done by the Maynard and his team to bring it to the finish line.
HCSB members indicated in statements at the workshop to Maynard and his attorney, Drew Vermette, that they are not anti-charter school, but the charter application is rife with deficiencies and prompted many concerns. Chief among these were his idea of charging application fees and his idea to purge the school of academic under-achievers. Both of these items are contrary to Florida Department of Education rules for charter schools.
School board members did indicate that they would be open to voting to accept the reworked charter school application, one which addresses the issues brought up in the workshop.
If a charter school application is denied, then the organizers can seek an appeal through the The Charter School Appeal Commission.
Julie Maglio contributed to this report.