The fates of three proposed public charter schools remain in limbo after a State Public Charter School Commission committee voted Tuesday to support a recommendation to deny one school’s application but could not agree on whether to advance two others.

The full commission, whose statutory mission is “to authorize high-quality public charter schools throughout the state,” is scheduled to make a final decision on the three applications at its Aug. 13 meeting. The commission has approved only one charter application a year the last two years from a pool of more than a dozen.

An evaluation panel consisting of commission staff and volunteer experts had deemed all three of this year’s applications insufficient and recommended they be denied. The commission’s Applications Committee took up the recommendations during a public hearing Tuesday that spanned five hours.

The applicants have proposed startup charter schools on Oahu and Kauai: Kamalani Academy in East Oahu, IMAG Academy in Waipahu and iLEAD Kauai.

The four-member committee voted 3-1 to accept the evaluators’ recommendation to deny IMAG Academy’s proposal. A similar motion to recommend iLEAD Kauai’s application be denied failed when committee Chairman Mitch D’Olier abstained from voting. The committee then voted 3-1 to defer a decision on Kamalani Academy’s application to the full commission without a recommendation either way.

Hawaii’s charter schools are largely funded with taxpayer dollars through per-pupil funding but are independently run under contracts with the commission. The schools report to their own governing boards rather than to the state Board of Education.

The three applications were cited by the evaluation panel for failing to meet standards in four areas: academic plan, financial plan, organizational plan and evidence of capacity.

The applicants were allowed to respond to criticism at the hearing, but commissioners and officials said the review process isn’t designed to allow for amendments along the way. Applications, they said, have to be judged as-is to ensure a fair process for all applicants.

“You can’t change the wheels on the bus once it’s rolling,” said Commissioner Roger Takabayashi. “Everything has to be in place before you start.”

D’Olier added that the commission takes seriously its responsibility to authorize publicly funded schools.

“We are charged to give some of the most treasured assets of the state of Hawaii — our children — and financial support to organizations that we are absolutely sure are going to improve outcomes for them,” he said. “And so that’s the standard, in my judgment. That means we’ve got to be sure.”

IMAG Academy

The application proposes a K-12 school to primarily serve Waipahu, starting out with grades kindergarten, 7 and 8 and eventually growing to 915 students at full scale. The school would emphasize a project-based and so-called V-BASE (value-added business, arts, science and engineering) education.

The commission’s evaluation team took issue with the school’s proposed financial plan, calling it “unrealistic and infeasible.”

“The overall weakness of the financial plan, evident in unrealistic staffing costs (up to 91 percent of per-pupil funds in its first year) and a dependence on grant funding, demonstrates the applicant’s lack of financial capacity and increases the likelihood that the budget, as described, will not sustain the operations of the school,” the evaluation panel wrote in its final report.

The school’s academic plan, meanwhile, “does not provide a comprehensive course scope and sequence that aligns from grade to grade.”

The reviewers concluded, “The applicant does not inspire confidence in its capacity to carry out the proposed plan effectively.”

Sheila Buyukacar, the proposed director of the school, countered that many of the criticisms could be easily remedied during the startup phase.

“We have put together a solid application,” she told the commission. “We’re going to blow the top off if we’re given the chance.”

iLEAD Kauai

The proposed school would serve East Kauai students in grades kindergarten to 8, starting out with 125 students and growing to 430 students at capacity. The school would offer an alternative education that emphasizes the arts, international culture, project-based learning, entrepreneurship and environmental consciousness, among other areas.

The evaluation team concluded that the school’s proposed academic plan “has substantial gaps, lacks detail and requires more information in the area of curriculum and instructional design … and fails to present a clear, realistic picture of how the school expects to operate.” It also criticized the academic track record of established iLEAD schools on the mainland.

The school’s financial plan also was criticized for lacking a contingency plan to meet financial needs if anticipated revenues are not received or come in lower than estimated.

“Please be assured that we are ready,” Deena Fontana Moraes, iLEAD Kauai’s proposed director, told the commission. “Our team has the academic plan, the capacity and the financial expertise to successfully start and implement a high-quality charter school for Kauai.”

The school’s organizers say it might instead open as a private school if the commission denies its application for a second time.

Kamalani Academy

The school would serve East Oahu with a planned location in Hawaii Kai for 350 students in grades kindergarten to 6 before expanding to include grades 7 and 8. The school would offer a so-called arts integration approach to learning.

The evaluation team criticized the school’s proposed academic plan for lacking clear examples of what its curriculum would look like. The plan, the review team said, doesn’t explain how the arts would be integrated into the academic framework of the school despite a focus on arts integration, and does not provide a clear and comprehensive plan for assessing student progress and performance.

The school’s proposed financial plan, meanwhile, lacks “complete, realistic and viable” operating budgets. The evaluators said the school’s financial plan unrealistically relies on achieving high enrollment targets — and correlating per-pupil funding.

“As evidenced by charter schools that have opened in Hawaii in the last three years, achieving enrollment targets and the subsequent effect that it has had on the schools’ budgets have presented challenges for new charter schools,” the reviewers wrote.

“We do have a very sound plan,” Kuuipo Laumatia, one of the school’s organizers, told the commissioners. She said her team “really cares about Hawaii’s keiki and about the educational choices that are offered here, or the lack of choices.”