The school also did not submit several audits on time and failed to insure some of its savings, he said. He concluded: "Simply, it's a question of whether we can continue to support an institution that has failed its students."
Graystone board of trustees president Jack Stollsteimer has a different interpretation: The vote was motivated, he said, by "money and power. . . . They decided to close the school long before the hearing."
Stollsteimer said the Coatesville board and administration, facing sizable budget challenges, want to save the $4.7 million the district paid to Graystone last school year to cover the education cost of its students. And the district administration, he said, "doesn't like not having the school under its control."
Graystone will ask the state Charter Appeals Board to overturn the ruling, he said, and expects to prevail.
Campbell, the Coatesville board president, and district Superintendent Richard Como did not return calls for comment.
All agree that Graystone, in a former Lukens Steel office building in South Coatesville, has struggled in recent years with low test scores and high administrative turnover.
Between 2008 and 2011, for example, the school had five principals, and several chief administrative officers.
Graystone did not meet state testing benchmarks for the last two years; test scores declined from 2007 to 2010. It showed some improvement this year, but it still scored below even the lowest-performing Coatesville school.
Stollsteimer, a former Philadelphia safe schools advocate - he monitored school violence in the city - joined the Graystone board 18 months ago in a bid to help the struggling school turn around.
