(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Quest Charter Academy for middle and high school students opened in 2010 to give families an alternative to District 150 schools.

But in January of this year, the Peoria Public School Board voted to deny the renewal application.

So unless the State Board of Education overrules District 150's decision, Quest will close its doors.

Dr. Taunya Jenkins is the CEO of Quest, and she joins us now to explain what's happening and how we got here.

Thanks for coming in.

- Thanks for having me.

- Let's talk a little bit about the beginning.

Let's go back to 2010.

What was the need to have a charter school in Peoria?

Why did folks want that alternative?

- It's my understanding that the business community was looking for choice for the city to have another option for students and families to select.

And so, that's when Glenn and Polly Barton decided that they were going to come together and see what else could be opened for options as a choice, and that's when the charter initiative was acclimated.

- And for folks not familiar, because we don't have a lot of charter schools in this area, what is the difference between a charter school and your traditional public school system?

- Well, charter schools can do things that are a little bit, sometimes what people consider non-traditional.

They can offer a focus area.

They can be a smaller entity.

They can offer students and families a bit of a different curriculum.

So there's a lot of different types of charter schools.

So it just depends on what the focus needs to be for the particular area that the charter school is opened in.

- And at Quest, STEM is a big- - Correct.

- Selling point there.

Tell us about STEM a little bit, and why that would be advantageous to students and the community at large.

- Well, I think in this generation right now, and in the workforce, there's a lot of need for students to be able to think, work in teams, be able to do different types of careers that maybe aren't on the books as traditional careers, and it's not that other places and Peoria Public Schools doesn't offer that, but it's just able to be able to do it in a project-based way.

STEM, standing for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and we actually added the A for Arts, makes us look at things and how you teach students a little bit differently.

And so, at Quest Charter Academy, what we do is we do that with project-based curriculum, which means that students really have to know how to think critically, and then apply that to the work that they're doing, for example, in a workforce situation.

So it's not just learning the standards, Illinois standards, but it's also learning those standards and how they apply to what you're doing in any particular project.

- Have your students mostly gone on to focus in the STEM field, or not necessarily?

- When we track our alumni, we find that they are landing in more of those STEM related fields, such as engineering, the Health Academy, where you absolutely have to have hands-on application to the skill sets that you've learned.

So yes, the answer is definitely yes.

Our students are landing in those STEM focused careers, and doing well.

- Mmm-hmm.

As far as running a charter school, what are some of the challenges, or differences than if it was just a school in District 150?

- I think that's a great question.

I think the differences that we find is, number one, you're gonna have smaller classes, so that does affect your staffing.

You have to really focus in on what students are looking for.

For example, we don't just put a stock class on the board, as we call it, on the curriculum offerings board.

What we do is we take a look at what are those interests for students, and then we actually offer classes that they're aligned with.

If they want to take a particular type of engineering, then we're looking at how can we offer that particular class for that particular class of students that that's their interest and that's where their skill sets lie.

- Let's fast-forward a little bit.

We've had a few different renewal processes since 2010.

When the contract, or whatever is up for renewal, what are some of the things that District 150, or the school board was looking at in terms of renewing it?

Did they look at certain things that need to be met, certain goals, things like that?

- Oh, absolutely, and I think one of the things that's interesting is it's to be a collaborative effort, where you sit down and you take a look at those goals, and you try to work together to build those goals, and if that's not aligned, then trying to get a contract where all parties are satisfied with that contract becomes a little bit more challenging.

And so, one of the things that they were looking for are they set particular goals.

We tried to talk about, you know, attainable goals, and then COVID set in.

And so, you've got a lot of different factors mitigating whether, or not you're able to hit those targets exactly.

And so, yes, to your question, there are goals set, and then both parties are trying to make sure that that partnership is met through those goals, and that's what one looks at to see whether, or not you are what we call rechartered.

- How much of an impact did COVID have on Quest?

We know it had an impact on everything and every school district in the country, but Quest specifically, what kind of an impact did COVID have on the schools?

- Well, I think for, you're exactly right.

The whole nation was shut down.

And so, you can't say that there was no impact.

There definitely was an impact, but one of the things that Quest was successful in doing is we are a STEM school.

So technology is one of those things that we pride ourselves on.

And so, we were able to still make what the state calls reasonable progress in all of our areas because that technology was not something that we had to scramble to do.

It was something that we were already doing.

And so, we were very challenged, just like everyone else, to switch on a dime when the state was closed down to meet those, continue to meet those goals, but we were able to make that progress because of the type of school we were.

So the challenges were still there.

Students hadn't been home, obviously, doing virtual learning, but to be able to say that we made the strides that we did, even with that two-year gap of not being in school, we were very proud of the work that we did, and the successes that we were able to achieve.

- January of this year, the school board voted five to one to not renew Quest.

Were you surprised by that?

- I wouldn't use the word surprise.

I would say that, you know, when you see the way things are going along the way, you kind of have an inkling of what's going to happen.

But yes, to see that we were not supported with what the state says should have been the process, yes, that was very alarming, and I think for all the families it came as a surprise that usually the state says that you can come in and you can make some type of a plan to remediate if that's what's needed, that we weren't given that opportunity.

We were just told that we would be closing.

- Why do you think that is?

- I'm not gonna speculate on that.

I feel as though my role is to just keep working towards making sure that we are working hard on students' and families' behalfs.

I think you'd have to ask the authorizers.

To that point, they gave particular reasons.

We didn't agree with those reasons, and so, therefore we went for the appeal.

- Since you brought it up, let's talk about the appeal.

Now, the state, the Illinois State Board of Education is looking at this.

Tell us how the appeal process works.

- The appeal process works where you, the authorizers, which is Peoria Public Schools in this instance, took their vote.

They said that they did not want to reauthorize us.

And so, once they file that they want to have closure, then what happens is we take it to the state level.

Used to be a commission, and now it's the Illinois State Board of Education.

And so, both sides begin to file their rationales and their documentations for those closures, and in this case, Peoria Public Schools did that, and then we countered with our appeal.

So now we also have had our hearing.

There's a hearing officer assigned to the case.

We've already had the appeal hearing, and now, it's in the hands of the officer.

Once the officer looks over all the documentations, we actually had a 45 minute ability to share our case again, and so did Peoria Public Schools.

The hearing officer had an opportunity to ask questions, and now there's a process and a time where that, all the documentation is looked at.

The recommendation is then given to the Illinois State Board of Education board and they can then take a look at what the hearing officer says and render their decision.

So it's quite a extensive process, - But it is expected in the next few months to have an outcome hearing- - Exactly, exactly.

The hearing officer will take probably 'til sometime in April, make that recommendation, and then the board has it in their hands, and we expect to hear a rendering by the middle, end of May.

- A lot of numbers are being thrown around in terms of what benchmarks were met, what weren't, what were close, but not met.

Do you think those benchmarks that were agreed to were fair?

- Since you're asking the question, no, I do not.

There were some instances where we feel as though any organization, when you look at students and that growth process, and so, you know, I'm not gonna get into numbers, and quibble and quabble.

When you're given a goal, we go after that goal intensely.

One of the things that we think is problematic is that those goals, looking at you can't get around the fact that COVID happened.

You can't get around the fact that those benchmarks were set very high, and lofty goals, there's no problem with that.

But I think the intent of the charter organization and the charter law is to be able to show that a school is the best interest for students and making reasonable progress.

We showed in all cases that we're making reasonable progress.

When you have a goal that's a 2.5 and you hit a 2.3, that's reasonable progress.

We're not down below, you know, a 1.0, or, you know, we're right there at the target, and we had a state, nationwide pandemic.

I don't think those kinds of things should be overlooked, or minimized.

And so, therefore we felt the need to be able to say, "No, we are still good for the community.

"We still are working hard on behalf of family, "students, and education."

So that's a part of when you say are they fair, that's relative.

People can say things are fair in their opinion.

Quest gets to have theirs, and thus the appeal.

- Looking at some of those numbers, there was supposed to be a 2% growth in English and language arts.

There was 1.6, so you were in the ballpark for sure.

And math, that number looked good.

If you had to in hindsight change anything, or look back, would you do anything different?

Would you have the schools do anything different to try and maybe better those numbers?

- Again, you're not working with automobiles, you're working with children.

You're working with a pandemic.

You are working with a lot of factors.

Staff at Quest do amazing, above and beyond.

You have to realize that when you get students in from wherever they're coming from, and they are coming from Peoria Public Schools, if they're not at grade level, you can't be expected to reach particular goals when they're not coming in at grade level to begin with.

You have to go back, you have to do interventions, you have to really dig deep to get students to understand that their education, number one, is their responsibility, and to get to change some of those factors that they may have not been in the best interest of students to begin with, meaning that maybe they don't have the best study habits, maybe they don't have the best understanding of Illinois code and how they have to, they're expected to grow in their learning.

So our staff is amazing, second to none.

We couldn't have the scores that we have without them.

So to answer your question, no, there's not one thing we would do differently.

We work hard, diligently every day, and to have a pandemic where the whole nation was closed and to still hit targets that are just within the ranges of hitting those high, lofty goals, and some of those are not necessarily lofty goals.

We're not whining about what the goals were.

We're simply saying that given the circumstances that were nationwide to say that you missed a target by, you know, 4/10, or, you know, we made progress, and that's the intent is that a school is actually bettering their community, and making students understand their learning.

One of the things that we did mention, and we try to just stay in our lane, as I say, but one of the things that we're very proud of is that we are in the top performing schools of the district.

So when you take a look at all the schools that are in the district, and you take a look at where Quest Charter Academy students are falling, we are what the state calls commendable.

That is the rating that is second to the highest.

Exemplary is the only other school designation that's higher than what we were able to reach at our schools.

And so, we're very proud of the work that we're doing, and we're very proud of the outcomes that we have, and we just don't think we were given the fair shake for where all schools are landing and where we landed.

We should be a part of the pride of the city.

- One concern that I know District 150 had was the lack of certified teaching staff at Quest.

We should make note that those teachers are not in the teachers' union.

Apparently, they're paid less than other District 150 teachers.

Is that a challenge to find teachers, and retain those teachers?

- I think when you start talking about salaries, again, that's something that the teachers understand.

When we take a look at what we do, teachers make that choice, just like families do, to come in and to be able to work with students because of the academic needs and strides that they're able to achieve with students.

And so, I think for us it's a matter of that has nothing to do, I won't say nothing to do, but it has very little to do with why we're able to attract teachers.

We attract quality teachers.

Again, to be able to hit the targets that we're hitting with students that are sometimes below grade level and below the standards that they should be says, speaks highly to the staff that we have.

And I think the other thing is that the nation, again, is short on teachers.

So to say that Quest Charter Academy does not have the 75% certified staff, again, we're right at that target.

So we are very close to that, and again, teachers are leaving the field, they're not just leaving from Quest Charter Academy, because education is so hard.

It's a challenging career to be in right now.

And so, again, we don't feel as though we're judged appropriately there.

Again, you should have the standards, but I think, again, if you take a look at the metrics in Peoria Public Schools, you'll find that they're having the same challenges that we are.

We just happen to be on the front line getting challenged with making sure we hit another target that is yet a nationwide challenge.

But we should also mention that Quest is very astute in making sure that we help to get teachers up to par, meaning that we help to pay for them to get that education, and we also bring in people that have degrees, they just don't happen to have a teaching certificate.

So to put someone into a music classroom that has a degree in music, just never thought they'd be in the classroom teaching, that's the difference in what we're quibbling about.

So they actually sometimes have had their own band, they've had their own music experiences, they've had their own careers in that particular lane.

They just never thought they'd be in the classroom, so they have to go back and get that teaching certificate, and that's the difference.

It doesn't mean they're any less qualified to teach children - In the next few months, as you wait for this announcement from the state on whether or not Quest is going to continue, where do you go from here?

I know the students have to keep learning as we start to wrap up the school year, but what kind of preparations is Quest undergoing right now in case the school's closed?

- Well, one of the things that we know is that we are not looking at Quest closing.

I think Peoria Public Schools is intent on saying that Quest is closed, and therefore they're doing all the things that they do to say things are closed.

We're doing the exact opposite.

We're doing everything that it takes to be ready to be open, which means that we are still talking to parents, talking to students, doing our lottery, doing all the things that we would do, posting our jobs, doing everything that we would do to be open.

So we're going at this from two different perspectives, and we'll see where we land.

- And if you do remain open, then the Illinois State Board of Education will be the entity overseeing you- - Correct.

- Do you know what that looks like, if that's gonna be vastly different than how Quest has been running right now?

- Well, obviously, I've never been down this lane before, so we are all in that learning curve.

But one of the things that we know for sure is when you're authorized by the state, then you have that collaborative goal setting, you have that funding that's different.

You have a lot of things that are gonna be, we think, advantageous to us to be authorized by the state as opposed to a district.

- So I guess, you know, with this minute and a half we have left, let's talk about, let's hear your sales pitch why Quest should stay open, what you told the state, and why this is important, an important option for the people of Peoria.

- Absolutely, one of the things that we know for sure is that we are still an entity to be reckoned with, and I tell staff all the time when Quest puts its foot first to be the best, we are really working toward that entity.

We have small class sizes.

We have project-based learning, so students are able to get to understand what it's really like to work in the workforce.

We have internships.

We have all kinds of things, opportunities for students and families, and one of the things that you hear very clearly when you talk to families and students is that we're like a family.

So we're a small entity, sort of that mom and pop situation, where you know each other, people have been there since fifth grade.

They've been there for five, six, seven, eight years.

They want to graduate from Quest, because they feel safe, they know people care.

We have a lot of programs in place to help environmental issues with students.

So we know for sure that being a part of Quest means that you're gonna get that individualized instruction that you need, and you're going to be able to find who you are and what your purpose is for your next leg.

It's not just about getting classes for that day.

It's about how do we connect to the next leg of a child's and family's educational life.

So we really work on getting them not into college, but through college, and if they don't wanna go to college, getting into that career that they know is for them, and they start talking about that from the time they hit the door with us at fifth grade.

So by the time they get into senior year and they do their passion projects at the end of the year, which is a project that makes them communicate and use technology to share what their career focus is going to be, they really understand where they're going and how they're gonna get there.

- All right, CEO Dr. Taunya Jenkins with Quest Charter Academy.

We will be following up on this, and we appreciate your time today.

- Again, thank you for having me.

- All right, thank you.

Our Phil Luciano talked to two Quest families who say the school has had a positive experience on their kids.

- [Phil] For Lorraine Washington, Quest Charter Academy has been the perfect fit for her grandson.

Washington, who is her grandson's guardian, says Peoria Public Schools didn't challenge him academically when he was younger.

- He attended 150 when he was in the first grade, and he slept a lot in the classroom.

I thought he had narcolepsy, but he was bored.

- [Phil] She moved her grandson to a private school.

But this year for fifth grade, she sent him to Quest for the emphasis there on technology.

She says his Quest teacher was very attentive.

- She always keep me informed.

I get an email from her every single day telling me what's going on in the classroom, how he's behaving.

If he's misbehaving, she gives me a call.

I don't wait, I don't wait for three, or four weeks ahead until things just build up, and then I get a phone call.

You know, it's every day she communicates, and that's very important to me, because I need to know ahead of time if he's failing, or misbehaving, so we can correct it early, so it won't affect his grades.

- [Phil] Arlene Coleman has two children enrolled at Quest, including daughter Angel.

- It's about class size.

It's about specializing in science and math.

It's about the community that Quest has has created.

- [Phil] This year for fifth grade, Angel's class size would've been 30 at PPS.

At Quest, her classroom has 18 students.

- I've actually worked before in Peoria Public Schools, and now I'm a tutor, and I've had the opportunity to go into the schools.

The schools are very overcrowded, and many students that need extra help are overlooked.

So when I go in and tutor, I may tutor three kids out of a class, but the class may have 18 students that actually need extra help.

- [Phil] Angel has enjoyed the academic atmosphere at Quest, thanks to the smaller class size.

- Less kids and less noise.

Everyone's very quiet.

Everyone's very focused.

Everyone has great grades.

I think we can learn easier when it's like less students.

- [Phil] Arlene Coleman was stunned when PPS decided not to renew its contract with Quest.

She isn't sure about a scholastic plan B for her two children.

- Well, I felt blindsided.

I was very shocked, very disappointed, and then I start to think about what other alternatives do we have, and we don't really have any.

- [Phil] Without Quest as an option, Lorraine Washington would send her grandson to private school again, but she thinks he, as well as the rest of Quest students, are getting a raw deal.

- They're grounded at Quest.

That's their foundation, and to rip them out of there, especially the high school kids that's gonna graduate next year, they have to adapt to District 150, and how they learn, and I just don't think it's fair.

- We are back with Phil Luciano, who is previewing a brand-new episode of "You Gotta See This" coming up in just a minute.

- It's opening day of baseball season, right?

Got a lot of baseball stories, but all of them transcend sport.

If you like history, if you like Central Illinois, I hope you like Central Illinois if you're watching this, we've got great stories, two I think you're really gonna like.

One is about Bud Fowler.

I'd known lots of baseball stories.

I never knew about this guy.

Long, decades before Jackie Robinson, he was a Black baseball pioneer, in fact, the first professional Black baseball player in organized ball.

He played in Central Illinois, a trailblazer through this area.

Loved learning this story.

The other story that you're gonna like, or maybe not like, baseball gum, baseball card gum.

- Oh, yeah- - If you collected baseball cards, you remember way back when they used to have the gum that was never really that great, but at least it was part of the experience.

We found some old baseball card packs, cracked open 'em, and started trying the gum.

How did you enjoy the flavor of that 30-plus-year-old gum?

- I was not thrilled.

I think I would've rather eaten one of the cards, to be honest with you.

It wasn't much of a difference.

- You gotta check out the expressions.

It's interesting.

- Yeah, we had a good time.

We do these things, so that you don't have to- - Yeah, 'cause everyone else is thinking about eating old gum.

- That's right.

All right, baseball season is here, and we thank you for joining us right here on "At Issue."

Coming up in just a few minutes, "You Gotta See This," with Phil, and Julie, and myself.

Have a good night.

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