Marshall sprang from a split between the board of the former Lifeskills Center of Middletown and that school’s management company, White Hat Management. When the two sides couldn’t agree on how to run the charter school, the board opted not to renew its contract with White Hat and formed a new school, Marshall, at the former ALDI on Roosevelt Blvd.
Meanwhile, Lifeskills retained its Breiel Boulevard location with White Hat Management, but with a new administrative team, with administrator Pamala Moore. That school started in July, Moore said.
Marshall has thus far enrolled 130 students, retaining about 75 percent of its roster from last year, Hall said. Moore said Lifeskills has enrolled 75 students so far and said the school was “having a great year.” She deferred all other comment to White Hat Management, which could not be reached Monday.
Hall said that Lifeskills “called all the (families) telling them to re-enroll.” However, those who had been enrolled in Lifeskills last year would transfer over to Marshall this year, and would not have to do anything new. Therefore, if families enrolled in the new Lifeskills, they were effectively switching to a different school.
“I’m not saying Lifeskills intentionally confused them or anything. I received several calls about this, and I suspect there will be more of that once we actually open up,” Hall said.
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