Paideia Academy charter in Apple Valley closing at end of school year

After a few years of declining enrollment, Apple Valley charter school Paideia Academy is shutting down when its eighth-graders graduate in June.

The decision to close boiled down to finances, said Jonathan Bradley, chairman of the school's board of directors. He said the school's offerings made it unique a decade ago. Now, traditional districts have stepped up their game, he said.

"We've had what we like to call a decade of excellence," he said. "The school really served a great and unique purpose for the time that it was open."

The board decided to close the school last week. In addition to finances, there were concerns about the school's academics, said Beth Topoluk, executive director of the charter's authorizer, Friends of Education.

While the school was designated a high-quality charter school by the Minnesota Department of Education, its rating "declined precipitously" in 2015, she said.

Lower test scores affected Paideia's enrollment, Bradley said — the number of students enrolled dropped at the beginning of this school year. In 2014, the Star Tribune reported that about half the teaching staff had recently resigned from the school. Many parents and former teachers had cited director Marci Levy-Maguire's aggressive leadership as a problem.

Friends of Education sent a notice of concern to the school on Jan. 19 regarding academic and fiscal matters, Topoluk said.

The school enrolls 270 students, said business manager Daniel Anderson. A couple of years ago, enrollment was approaching 400, he said.

"As our enrollment goes down, our rent stays the same," he said.

An upcoming school fair will feature representatives from other schools for families looking for a new school, Anderson said.

The kindergarten through eighth grade school offers a Spanish program, Latin in grades 5 through 8 and a classical studies program.

Beena Raghavendran • 612-673-4569