Byers charter school's embattled CEO resigns

Russell Byers Charter School announced yesterday the resignation of embattled Chief Executive Officer Constance Horton just five weeks into her first school term as chief.

Horton was hired in June, taking over after the end of the 2013-2014 school year.

Horton's ouster comes two weeks after the school's board of directors initially declined to remove Horton in response to demands made by more than 130 parents and teachers.

Jeff Jubelirer, a public relations consultant serving as spokesman for Byers Charter, blamed poor communications between Horton and the board for the sudden departure. "It's the best thing moving forward, "he said, "It just wasn't a very good fit."

Megan Harper, who has two children at RCBS and who said she was initially hesitant to sign a petition seeking Horton's ouster, blamed a more fundamental difference in philosophy between the CEO and the rest of the school. "We were being treated like a school that was completely dysfunctional," Harper said "She made all these changes without first observing how the school functioned."

RCBS, a Center City charter with students in kindergarten through the 6th grade, has long espoused a holistic approach to education, called "Expeditionary Learning."

Horton made a number of changes to focus more on reading and math, at the expense of programs in arts, sciences and foreign languages. It was seen as a move away from the holistic approach that attracted parents to the school in the first place.

"We prided ourselves as more than just a "teach to the test" kind of school," said Harper. "We chose this charter because of the differences."

Larry Sperling will step in as a "Re-chartering and Leadership Transition Consultant" — an interim CEO, while the board finds a new chief. Sperling recently retired as CEO of the Philadelphia Academy Charter School, which he has been credited for saving following a financial-mismanagement scandal.

Sperling has been hired through Nov. 26. During this time, he will help oversee an ad-hoc committee of the school board that is considering how to respond to the changes Horton instituted.

"The board is still very committed to the expeditionary-learning philosophy," said Jebelirer. "First and foremost, they want to come back to that, and bring it back where it has been displaced."

The charter for RCBS, which opened on Sept. 11, 2001, is currently up for renewal. All charter schools face a state re-chartering process every five years.

In September, parents circulated a petition seeking Horton's dismissal and cited 42 complaints about her management of the school. At the time, Horton said she planned to respond "in full" to the complaints.

"I am committed to productively working through all substantive issues raised by parents and teachers now and in the future, and will resolve all concerns as appropriate in the interest of the students," Horton said then.

She had sought to calm a growing parent revolt over changes she imposed at the start of the new school year, but signaled that she was not about to change course.

At a school board meeting on Sept. 18, Horton apologized to angry parents, and some teachers, for any appearance that she had ignored their views when making sweeping changes to curriculum and setting new rules that have antagonized large sections of the school community. The CEO acknowledged she could have done a better job at communicating her changes.

With signatures of 130 parents, some of whom have several children in the school, supporters said it represents a majority of students at the 485-student school.

In addition to the changes in the curriculum, the parents had said she set tough new rules for students including requiring complete silence in corridors, and imposing strict limits on when they can use restrooms.