The state Board of Education has granted the Interdistrict School for Arts and Communication a three-year renewal of its charter, acknowledging strides toward meeting state goals and identifying areas in need of improvement.

The board voted on the renewal at its June 3 meeting with one member voicing her concerns about ISAAC’s new executive director, Nicholas Spera.

Board of Education member Malia Sieve added a special condition to the charter renewal, approved by the board, for what she said was in recognition of “the experiences, pain and concern shared by the students, staff and parents who have had direct experience with Dr. Spera,” while he was principal at the Marine Science Magnet High School in Groton.

Sieve, who said she has children attending the marine science high school, asked that ISAAC annually report to the board’s accountability and support committee about the school culture and climate.

Sieve said she recognized and credited Spera with bringing the marine magnet school success through his years there but said “all of these wonderful things do not justify for one single moment the deplorable manipulations claimed to have been inflicted by Dr. Spera.”

Several people have come forward to complain that, during his time as director at the Marine Science Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut, Spera was hyper-focused on test scores and had bullied and belittled staff and played favorites with students. He has denied those claims and in a statement to The Day in January said he was a “passionate, enthusiastic and demanding leader of MSMHS who cared deeply about the success of all students.”

When Spera left the marine science high school in December after eight years, LEARN, the organization that operates the school, promised an investigation into claims brought forward.

Board member Barbara Crouch suggested that the comments about Spera at the June 3 board meeting were an "overstep" and that following Spera's hiring, the school has received many letters of support related to Spera and the work he has done.

The official record of ISAAC’s renewal notice does not mention Spera in the board’s list of “areas of concern,” and members of ISAAC’s board, in a phone interview on Wednesday, said the focus is to move ISAAC and its students forward. Spera is contributing to that goal, they said.

The school's strengths include strong community support, an increase in its accountability index, high attendance rates, growth in English Language Arts scores and a student body that reflects the demographics of the community.

Areas of concern, according to the state board, include a suspension rate that is higher than the state average, and student proficiency in mathematics in certain grade levels that is below the state average. For instance, ISAAC’s 2018-19 Smarter Balanced average percentage of growth target achieved in math in seventh grade was 35% below New London’s and 50.5% below the state’s.

ISAAC is to submit a plan to the state Department of Education for corrective actions by July 6.

ISAAC, a middle school with about 279 students that celebrated its eighth grade graduation on Wednesday, last month announced it was hiring a principal and said Spera would retain the title of executive director.

Denise Dunning will start at the school as principal on July 1. She is the special education secondary level administrator at Montville Public Schools and for nearly two decades was a special education teacher and assistant house principal at Norwich Free Academy.

ISAAC board Chairman Christopher Jones said it was decided that the school would keep the two positions based on the success over the past year, when there was an interim director and principal. “We wanted to keep the same format. It was working for us,” he said.  

Lee Cornish-Muller, ISAAC board treasurer, said the positions are “two very different jobs,” and the principal’s primary duties surround the day-to-day interactions with students and staff. The executive director position is more of an administrative position, handling everything from state certifications to local partnerships for the school.

Spera is expected to be involved in helping the school meet charter renewal requirements. For instance, ISAAC is required to submit bimonthly reports on academic progress. The school is in the process of being accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

ISAAC additionally has hired a dean of students, Tanya Collins, a former educator from the New London Public Schools, to replace outgoing Dean Chris Baxter.   

"The board has been happy with Dr. Spera," Jones said. "The goal is to increase the test scores, to have academic rigor and ... to get kids better prepared for high school. We feel this model will help us achieve our goals."

g.smith@theday.com