The Birmingham Board of Education unanimously rejected both charter school applications at its Tuesday night board meeting.

The vote came after more than a dozen supporters of STAR Academy, one of the applicants, asked board members to approve the charter during a public hearing prior to the vote.

STAR Academy representative Thomas Beavers said after the vote they plan to pursue an appeal with the Alabama State Public Charter School Commission after an official denial letter is received. "I'm actually happy [the application was denied]. I believe the board is adversarial to charter schools, so I'd rather somebody approve it who's not adversarial to charter schools so that we don't have to continuously answer to them," Beavers said.

Beavers is Senior Pastor of New Rising Star church in the Eastlake area of Birmingham. His group currently operates an early childcare center, afterschool program and spring break and summer enrichment camps.

During a work session prior to the official meeting where the vote was taken, the application review committee recommended denying the applications for various and different reasons, including concerns around budgets, expenditures, building capacity and governance structures.

Both charter school applicants told board members they had problems communicating with school officials, saying it was difficult to get information and the timeline the board followed didn't allow for proper development of the application.

Birmingham City Schools' request for proposal, released November 1, requested charter applicants submit plans to operate a dual-language Spanish-English immersion school.

Beavers questioned board members about that plan, saying, "This is not the school our community needs. Our kids need to be able to read, write and do arithmetic."

Other speakers echoed that concern, citing Birmingham's 13 schools on the failing school list.

Former Birmingham City Council president Lee Loder and his wife Adrianne Ragland-Loder currently operate a state-funded pre-K program through the state's First Class Pre-K program in downtown Birmingham and sought to operate iBestow as the dual-language immersion program prescribed in the board's request.

Loder told board members that when 4-year-old students graduate from their current pre-K program, those families move to other areas if they are unable to enroll in one of the magnet elementary schools in Birmingham.

Board president Wardine Alexander said after the meeting that the board followed the state law by voting to reject the applications. Alexander said that because neither application met the requirements of what Birmingham City Schools asked for, they could not approve either application.

Contri said the timelines the board followed came straight from the charter school law. The application period closed on December 1.

The few speakers against charter schools asked charter supporters to come together with school officials to strengthen all schools instead of dividing resources between traditional and charter schools.

"We have to ask ourselves if this is really about all kids, or just those 1,000 or so that will have the chance to attend these charter schools," local activist Terri Michal said during the public hearing.

Most speakers, however, said Birmingham schools were failing the city's children. One speaker asked the board, "Would you want your kids to go to Birmingham City Schools, for real?"

Jonta Morris, who will serve as principal of STAR Academy, said, "At the end of the day, this decision is failing kids. The naysayers against charter schools did not present a solution to failing schools."

In spite of the vote, Beavers said, "We're very encouraged. Delay does not mean denial. Mark my words, it will come to pass."

Charter School Application Team Findings, presented January 24, 2017 by Trisha Powell Crain on Scribd