The Berks County Community Foundation recently attempted to intervene in the dispute between the Reading School District and the I-LEAD Charter School. One side accepted and the other did not.

The school board voted a month ago to start the process that would revoke the charter granted to I-LEAD. Removal of the charter would shut down the school. I-LEAD vowed it would fight the efforts.

The foundation released a statement recently stating it had sent emails and registered letters to both the school and the school district offering mediation. The offer included encouragement to accept from a state senator and county commissioner. The foundation believes the ongoing dispute will be extremely expensive for both sides.

I-LEAD accepted the offer for mediation, the school board rejected it.

Board president and spokesman Dr. Robert S Natalini from I-LEAD released a statement following the offer stating the school “… enthusiastically accepts the foundation’s offer to facilitate mediation…” Furthermore, he stated the school never wanted a fight and never wanted to take legal action, they just want to continue to stay in operation.

The district released a statement in response saying mediation “… does not fall into the mandated process that has to be followed.” Instead, they want a public hearing where they can present evidence. The district is accusing I-LEAD of having poor performance on state exams, not reaching academic and non-academic goals in the charter, failing to disclose relationships and income, and poor graduation rates.

The hearing will likely be scheduled now for November.