The state Board of Education overruled the Charter School Review Panel for a second time Tuesday and ordered that Laupahoehoe High and Elementary School open as a charter school for the 2012-13 academic year.

"It seems like the reports of our doom were premature," said Steven Strauss, spokesman for the interim local school board for Laupahoehoe Community Public Charter School. "We’re hopeful that the Charter School Review Panel and the Department of Education will take the board’s instructions to heart."

The drive to convert the 128-year-old campus on the Hamakua Coast to a charter school has run into major hurdles in the past year. Twenty out of 21 teachers at Laupahoehoe have asked to be allowed to transfer to other public schools in the district if it becomes a charter.

The review panel initially denied the charter application because of concerns about community opposition and financing, but was reversed by the Board of Education. Then, on Dec. 8, the panel postponed the charter’s opening after the applicants refused to let current teachers, staff and parents elect a permanent governing board for the charter campus.

But the Board of Education, in a written decision signed by Vice Chairman Brian De Lima, concluded that the review panel was wrong. Such elections need not take place until the school opens as a charter and its staff, students and parents are identified, the ruling said. The ruling was supported by all board members attending the Jan. 17 appeal hearing: Jim Williams, Charlene Cuaresma, Wesley Lo, Nancy Budd and Kimberly Gennaula.

The review panel’s determination that the "current principal, instructional staff, support staff, parents and students of Laupahoehoe School qualify as the stakeholder groups for purposes of an election of a conversion charter local school board is not supported by law, and therefore was clearly erroneous," De Lima wrote. He also noted that the charter group could lose $250,000 remaining in a federal grant if it didn’t open this fall.

"We thank the BOE for its strong support for charter school students and for educational reform by overturning the Charter School Review Panel’s misguided directives," interim board President Niki Barton Hubbard said in a statement. "The board looks forward to working with the school and community to open a great school in July 2012."

Teachers at Laupahoehoe were dismayed at the news that their school is being converted against their will. Previous conversions of regular public schools have had support of their staffs.

Unlike a startup charter school, in which teachers and students choose to participate, a conversion school continues to serve as the public school for students in its neighborhood. But its teachers are no longer part of the Department of Education.

"I think the Board of Education was intent on this decision," said Laupahoehoe teacher Carol Dodson. "It didn’t matter what the circumstances or facts were. I think they had already made up their minds. It seems like they want to get rid of the school. … As of July 1 we are terminated from the DOE without our consent."

Members of the Charter School Review Panel were unhappy with the verdict as well.

"My main disappointment is that throughout this whole process, I think the voice of the people who are most affected, which are the students, the parents, the staff and teachers at Laupahoehoe School, did not really have a chance to be heard," said panel Chairman Carl Takamura. "I just hope the best for them as they go through what will probably be a difficult transition."

Panel member Ruth Tschumy said she was surprised at the board’s reversals since the panel had taken action consistent with advice from its deputy attorney general. She added that there is "heated opposition to the charter from parents and teachers."

"Charter schools are based on community support," Tschumy said. "So until they get their community in accord, it’s very foolish for the Board of Education, in my view, to grant a charter as they did originally when they overturned the panel’s decision. And now I believe they are simply compounding that problem."

Strauss expressed confidence that despite the potential mass exodus of teachers, the school will be ready for students by the time it opens.

"We’ve invited teachers at the current school and other teachers to submit letters of interest," Strauss said. "We’ve also had communications with Teach for America. We expect to have a full slate of teachers when we open."