Thank you to those of you who attended the meeting last night!
The Superintendent submitted to the Board a 19 page recommendation for denial released two hours before the meeting. The CUHSD Board had very little time to review the recommendation and did not ask SBP any questions regarding the validity of the statements made in the recommendation. They took the recommendation at face value and voted unanimously to deny the charter petition.
While this is disappointing, it is not completely unexpected. I like Eric Premak’s quote in the Mercury article today ``From the charter school perspective, it often feels like trying to start a Kmart and having to ask Wal-Mart for permission.''
Bottom line is that districts view charter schools as competition.
Historically in Santa Clara County, the local districts have not voted pro-charter. Historically the local districts have heard the charter presentation at the initial public hearing and then worked with their staff and a hired law firm who generally knows how to best document the grounds for denial of the petition. Historically this document (the recommendation to the district board) has been presented to the petitioners and the board for review and analysis moments before a decision needs to be made giving the board no time to evaluate and petitioners no time to respond. Historically the district board has voted in-line with what the staff has recommended.
Unfortunately this is exactly what happened last night. While we were hopeful that things would turn out different and we are very disappointed that they did not, sadly we are not completely surprised.
LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE…
South Bay Preparatory’s CHARTER PETITION is absolutely OUTSTANDING and it does contain a sound educational plan! The charter petition is posted on the website at http://www.southbayprep.org/documents/SBP%20Charter%20Petition.pdf. If you have not already seen it, I urge you to take a look.
The two leading charter agencies CCSA and CSDC have both reviewed the petition and have given it two thumbs up. The leading charter law firm, Law Offices of Spector, Middleton, Young and Minney, has reviewed the petition and has stated that we are legally compliant. We have used several successful charter school models, Pacific Collegiate, Summit Preparatory and Downtown College Prep as the basis for our educational program. And finally, many of you helped write it, review it, revise it and literally spent hundreds of hours creating one of the best charter petitions that I have read (and I have read manyJ).
The district’s recommendation was filled with inaccuracies regarding the SBP Charter Petition. We plan to post a response to the recommendation on our website in the next week.
In addition, we absolutely will appeal to the county. We will submit the charter petition to the county sometime in late August/Early September. The county will hold a public hearing within 30 days of receiving the petition and then will make a decision within 60 days of receiving the petition, sometime in late October/Early November. The petition that we submit to the county is required to be the exact petition that was submitted to the district with a few minor changes because the authorizing agent will change from CUHSD to SCCOE. SBP has an excellent petition and an excellent chance on appeal. And with your continued support I believe we can create this choice for our kids.
Thanks again to all of you!
Kelly Lambert
President, SBP