MT. JEWETT ? The Mt. Jewett Charter Coalition still is waiting for a reply from the Kane School Board on its request to use the Mt. Jewett Elementary School as the site for its proposed Charter School.

The Mt. Jewett Elementary School is closing Thursday at the end of the school year.

About 39 students in second, third and fourth grades in Mt. Jewett will be shifted to the Chestnut Street Elementary School in Kane when classes resume in August. A total of 11 fifth-graders at the Mt. Jewett school will be attending the Kane Middle School for the next school year.

The Mt. Jewett Charter Coalition is moving ahead with plans to operate a state-approved Charter School in Mt. Jewett beginning with the 2008-09 school year. The coalition is seeking permission from the school board to utilize the vacated Mt. Jewett school as the site for the Charter School.

So far, the request has fallen on deaf ears, according to coalition members who attended Monday's meeting of the Mt. Jewett Borough Council.

"They haven't met with us," Skye Ogden, a coalition leader, said in reference to the lack of dialogue with the school board on the coalition's request to use the Mt. Jewett school. "There's been absolutely nothing."

Chuck Paar, another coalition member and a Republican nominee for Mt. Jewett Borough Council in the Nov. 6 election, accused the school board of "stonewalling" the coalition.

"They act like we're not even there," Paar said.

Ogden said "it's unfortunate" that the school board hasn't contacted the coalition to discuss the request.

"They need to step up," she said. Ogden believes that turning the vacant school building over to the coalition for its Charter School "is in their best interests." She said Kane School District property owners "don't want to carry the burden for this building."

Doug Keller, another coalition member, appealed to the Mt. Jewett Borough Council to "get on board with us."

He asked council to prepare a letter of support, which will be part of the coalition's application for a state-authorized Charter School. Keller said the letter of support is "a necessity" for the application process.

Council President Dick Danielson said he sees no problem in providing a letter of support to the coalition. "I don't see that as an issue at all," he said.

Danielson advised the coalition to contact Steve Perry, business manager for the school district. "He's always been very cooperative," Danielson said in reference to Perry.

The Mt. Jewett school is being closed as part of a school consolidation project. Plans call for the construction of a new elementary school as an addition to the Kane Middle School on Hemlock Avenue.

The middle school also is expected to be renovated.

When the renovation is complete, the Chestnut Street school also will be closed and all elementary students will move to the new elementary school attached to the middle school.