Email trail shows Pottstown schools chief was in talks with charter magnate
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POTTSTOWN — "The shock," was something schools Superintendent Reed Lindley could understand.
As he wrote in an April 1 email, he had at the school board meeting the night before read a letter indicating that the operator of the largest charter school in Pennsylvania is interested in taking over all elementary education in Pottstown.
Although it was the first time either the public or the school board had been made aware of this possibility, Lindley was, of all the people in the room, anything but shocked.
By the time Lindley delivered the March 31 letter to the school board, he and the administration had for more than two months been in quiet but frequent communication with charter school operator Vahan Gureghian, CEO of Charter Schools Management Inc.
Since Jan. 22, Lindley and the district's top administrative staff had emailed and held meetings with Gureghian, visited the school the company operates in Chester, arranged to lobby state legislators together and even provided the company with statistical information about the district's elementary schools that is marked