The State Board for Charter Schools served a notice of intent to revoke the charter for Primavera, or American Virtual Academy, after three consecutive years of failure to meet academic standards. 

In a 7-1 vote March 4, the board put the charter operator on a slow, though not yet assured, course to shutdown, with the potential to displace around 6,800 full-time K-12 students and about 750 employees, including 180 teachers. 

Closure is not immediate, though, as the charter is afforded the opportunity to appear before an administrative judge prior to a final vote by the board. 

“This was not an easy decision,” board Vice President Hans-Dieter Klose said. “This is an unprecedented situation.” 

Ashley Berg, executive director of the State Board for Charter Schools, clarified it was not “unprecedented” for the board to issue an intent to revoke, but she said, to her knowledge, this was the first time under the board’s current academic framework that a charter school had received three consecutive “D” letter grades. 

The board’s Academic Performance Framework requires that a charter holder that has one or more schools receiving an overall rating of “Does Not Meet Standard” or “Falls Far Below Standard” for three consecutive years and has failed to demonstrate sufficient progress goes before the board for consideration. 

Primavera, or American Virtual Academy, received a “D” rating in fiscal year 2022 for falling “Far Below Standard,” and again in FY23 and FY24 after receiving a “Does Not Meet Standard.”

In 2024, 23% of students tested proficient in English Language Arts and 9% tested proficient in math. 

Damien Creamer, chief executive officer of Primavera, appeared before the board March 4y. He said he had to step away from his leadership role in late 2019 after his wife fell terminally ill, and the “chaos” of the Covid pandemic followed. 

During this time, Creamer said there was a “significant leadership failure,” giving way to a failure to apply for and secure alternative school status. 

Under state criteria, alternative schools must serve at-risk student populations, including students with a history of disruptive behavior or discipline actions, who previously dropped out of school, are in poor academic standing, are primary caregivers or financially responsible for dependents, or are wards of the state.

A-F performance metrics for alternative schools vary from that of a traditional school with a lower weight placed on proficiency and a greater weight put on college and career readiness and growth to graduation. 

“Had we simply applied like we had applied for the past ten years, we would have been rated as a performing school and we would not be here,” Creamer said. “Processes were dropped, things were missed… the onus is on us.” 

He noted the charter had reapplied, been approved for and was currently operating as an alternative school. 

“We will be a performing school when the next year of letter grades comes out,” Creamer said. 

But board member and alternative charter operator Binky Michele Jones noted the college and career readiness benchmark would have been “extremely” low for the school under either grading system and asked if there are “intentional decisions being made to get students where they need to be.”

Board member and charter school teacher Stephanie Bahr said she did not see any effort being put in until the charter had to come before the board. 

“This underserved population, you are underserving them,” Bahr said. 

After convening in executive session, Klose made a motion to issue a notice of intent to revoke, which passed 7-1. 

Per Arizona Administrative Code, both the board and the charter holder will appear for an administrative hearing before an administrative law judge. The board can then decide whether to accept, reject or modify the decision of the judge and make a final decision on whether to revoke the charter.

Berg, executive director of the state board, said the hearing date will be set by the Office of Administrative Hearings.