WINDHAM – The Maine Charter School Commission has rejected an application submitted by a group of Lakes Region parents who hoped to open a public Montessori charter school in Windham.

According to the group’s 610-page application, the proposed Many Hands Montessori School would have accepted 40 students for grades K-3 in the 2014-2015 school year. The school would grow by one grade each year, and by the 2018-2019 school year, organizers projected that there would likely be 85 students at the school, with a maximum potential student population of 122.

The Many Hands board of directors, most of who are from Windham and have children attending the Little Log Cabin Montessori School on Tandberg Trail in North Windham, still hopes to open the school this year, according to Jennifer Benham, a Windham resident who has helped spearhead the effort. On Saturday, the Many Hands board will examine various financial aid models in order to find a way forward, Benham said.

“A big part of our mission was to provide a Montessori education for all. We don’t like to exclude based on income,” Benham said.

Benham said that she met with the commission on Jan. 16 for an interview. Toward the end of the month, she was informed that the group would not proceed to the second round of interviews.

“We were told that we had a great vision and a great idea and that we needed more time to grow in terms of getting our structures and supports in place in order to become a public charter school,” said Benham. “We were encouraged to resubmit next year. The committee was encouraging of us in many ways, but they just didn’t feel like we were ready to take on the regulatory demands of a public school.”

According to Jana LaPoint, chairwoman of the state commission, four groups applied for public charter school status before last year’s Dec. 2 deadline. LaPoint said that the commission decided to grant a public hearing to all the applicants except the Many Hands group.

“I think that we felt that they were just beginning to come together as a board and needed to begin to do some really digging-down heavy work,” Lapoint said. “They know it. It was not surprise to any of them.”

LaPoint also said that the group had not aligned its curriculum to the state standards.

“I don’t think they had much of an idea of how deep they had to go with the curriculum in terms of lining up with the Maine Learning Results,” LaPoint said.

On March 4, the commissioners will cast a final vote on the remaining three proposals, according to LaPoint.

In 2011, Gov. Paul LePage signed legislation that set up the commission, and gave it the authority to authorize as many as 10 public charter schools before June 30, 2022. The commission has already approved five charter schools so far. The bar for approval becomes higher following each new approval, LaPoint said.

“It’s going to get tougher for all the people going forward,” LaPoint said. “They’re not going to get the leniency maybe that we were able to get in the beginning.”

For more information about the Many Hands meeting on Saturday, contact Benham at manyhandsmontessorischool@gmail.com.