With a looming final Board of Regents Vote to decide if a mayoral academy charter school will be built in Providence, and a Martin Luther King Jr. Day protest at the State House opposing charter schools planned for 2 p.m., both sides for and against charter schools are yet again butting heads in the battle for state education dollars.

At last night’s School Committee work session about the proposed Achievement First mayoral academy in Providence, the organization that intends to run the school and Rhode Island Mayoral Academies, which has been lobbying for the school, were noticeably absent.

As a result, School Committee members expressed frustration that they would be unable to ask questions of Achievement First and RIMA on the revised plan and took turns stating their concerns about the impact of the charter school on the Cranston School District.

“As an individual, my only agenda is to have questions answered for me so I can best perform my fiduciary duty,” said School Committee member Frank Lombardi.

RIMA issued a press release a few hours before the meeting announcing they would skip it because “RIMA believe[s] the forum will cover no new ground” and “we have also been disappointed by the continued negative tone in questions posed thus far and the absence of a true dialogue focused on the proposal and how we may work together in the best interest of all students.”

But Lombardi said the current application to build two schools in Providence is a different application than the one hotly debated last year that would have built a school in Cranston and that the School Committee voted to formally oppose. Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung took major heat because of his support for the proposal, which he spearheaded, and he ended up watching the plan go down in flames when the Board of Regents ultimately voted to reject it. The new proposal is backed by Providence Mayor Angel Tavares and has already received support by the Providence School Committee.

“In the words of Achievement First, this is a changed application,” Lombardi said. “It is a revision of the original Fung application. What happens if we have special needs students? What happens if we have special needs students in the mayoral academy? What happens if one of them has to leave? Who picks up the tab? How is that determined?”

It is questions such as those, Lombardi said, as well as lingering questions about the lottery system that would select students from Cranston, Warwick, Providence and other communities, that he would like answered.

“It sounds to me that . . .the mayoral academies believe they’re going to come into a buzz saw that is the Cranston School Committee and that isn’t the case at all.”

The primary concern among Cranston officials about both charter school proposals is the financial impact on the district. For each student that leaves the public school system to go to the charter school, the city would take a financial hit equivalent to the per-pupil cost of about $15,000. Officials argue that one student’s departure hardly amounts to a $15,000 savings in educational spending.

Last night, School Committee Member Janice Ruggieri said the financial hit on the public school systems is so significant, the Providence School Committee’s subcommittee formed to study Achievement First’s proposal recommended only one school open instead of two “because the fiscal impact is so damaging.”

School Committee Chairwoman Andrea Iannazzi said one major point that has been missed during the lengthy debate about mayoral academies is the fact that in Connecticut, where Achievement First runs a number of schools, “the money doesn’t follow the student.”

Achievement First receives 75 percent of the per-pupil cost per student in Connecticut “with no harm to the district,” Iannazzi said. “If that were the case here in Rhode Island, I don’t think we’d all be having this conversation.”

RIMA’s chief strategy officer Christine Lopes said despite the Cranston School Committee’s vote to oppose the original application last year, “RIMA has worked hard to answer their questions and ensure they are provided all relevant information and remain committed to doing so.”

Ruggeiri and Iannazzi did note that Lopes has been approachable and responsive during the process and Ruggeiri said she just recently received some answers to a series of questions she submitted some time ago but a technical glitch prevented her from opening the documents last night.

“We have participated in multiple public hearings, responded to countless questions, and invited the Cranston School Committee to visit our schools.  At this point, we see no new ground to be covered at tonight’s hearing,” Lopes said. “We look forward to participating in the Board of Regents’ consideration of the application over the coming weeks.  Regardless of the Regents’ decision, we hope to improve our dialogue with the Cranston School Committee so that we may move toward discussing the myriad of ways we can collaborate to improve Rhode Island’s public schools.”

In a rousing speech, Superintendent Peter Nero said 16 of Cranston’s 17 elementary schools met Annual Yearly Progress targets set by the state Department of Education this past year. That’s a feat that Nero said a representative of Achievement First said was “largely unattainable.”

Nero repeated the phrase, “largely unattainable” to hammer his message that despite serious financial hardships and challenges, Cranston is meeting targets and educating Cranston’s children well. Meanwhile none of Achievement First’s elementary schools in Connecticut met the AYP, Nero said.

“I want to bring back all the things we have taken out of the budget,” Nero said to applause, referring to middle school sports, music programs and other cuts that have drastically reduced the number of employees and extracurricular activities offered in Cranston.

And Cranston “hasn’t even talked about asset protection” in the midst of all the district’s issues —the mayoral academy debate, the schools’ deficit reduction plan with the City Council and a cash-strapped budget that technically doesn’t meet the Basic Education Plan outlined by RIDE.

That means the Cranston School District doesn’t have a detailed plan to protect its buildings and other assets at a time when they’re in “dire need,” Nero said.

“I want to focus starting next [fiscal] year on asset protection. I want to focus on technology in our classrooms,” he said.  “I can’t do that if my money is leaving my district to go someplace else.”

The Board of Regents will address the mayoral academy on Thursday in what is expected to be another standing-room-only meeting at the Shepard Building on Westminster Street.

A group of parents in Providence have now begun to protest the proposal, joining the voices against the school in Cranston.

A final vote on the proposal is expected on Jan. 19.