This school year will likely be the last for Harpswell Coastal Academy. A final effort to renew the charter school’s contract was denied by the Maine Charter School Commission Monday.

Wilson Hess, the commission’s chairperson, confirmed the commission’s decision today. The decision was first reported by The Times Record.

According to an official resolution, the commission declined to renew the charter school’s contract “due to its failure to meet or make sufficient progress toward the performance expectations set forth in the charter contract, including enrollment standards, chronic absenteeism, academics, and overall fiscal fragility.”

According to a May report in The Times Record, which cited findings from the commission, the school was unable to stay within 10% of its targeted enrollment for two consecutive years and had a chronic absenteeism rate of about 50%.

Mel Christensen Fletcher, the academy’s interim head of school and Cynthia Shelmerdine, chairperson of the school’s board of directors, both declined comment until the board could release a statement on the commission’s decision. As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the board had issued no statement.

Hess noted that the school will remain open through the end of the school year. After that, he said, the school’s 171 students have a number of options, which include finding enrollment in other charter schools in the state, or in public school districts. The commission, he said, is putting together a team to work with the academy.

“We’re going to try to provide resources and support to Harpswell Coastal Academy so that they can help their students make that decision,” he said.

The academy’s supporters have been working for months to avoid closure. They scored a small victory on May 10 when the commission approved a move to consolidate the academy’s two campuses, thus saving money, but even then, according to the commission meeting’s minutes, there were concerns about the school’s future.

According to the minutes, Hess described the school as “still fragile,” and said the decision “is not an indicator of renewal.”

Supporters also asked the commission to defer its decision on the contract, which the commission denied on Monday prior to denying the contract renewal.

Harpswell Coastal Academy is a free charter school for students in grades 5-12 that was founded in 2013. Located in the town of Harpswell, it opened a second campus in Brunswick that recently closed in an attempt for the school to remain solvent.