Court upholds Polytechnic charter petition

A San Benito County Superior Court judge this week upheld the county office of education’s approval of a petition for a charter school submitted by Polytechnic Academy. 

The San Benito County Office of Education announced the court decision this week. The San Benito High School District had filed a complaint in superior court following the county office’s previous approval of the Polytechnic charter petition. 

County office of education staff said the “frivolous” lawsuit by SBHSD had cost the taxpayers more than $143,000 as of the end of September. 

“Today, San Benito County’s children and families are the biggest beneficiaries of the court’s decision, as parents were not stripped of their right to choose the best academic pathway for their children,” said Lee Ann Britt, President of the San Benito County Board of Education. “As a school board, we value a parent’s right to choose.”

The San Benito County Board of Education approved Polytechnic Academy’s request for a Countywide Charter Petition on Oct. 5, 2023. The Polytechnic Academy sought to provide an innovative educational program to students across the county, with equal admissions preference for all students in the county, according to a press release from the county office of education.  

In response to San Benito County’s decision, the SBHSD board initiated the “unprecedented step of suing the San Benito County Board of Education,” says the press release. The district challenged the county’s finding that granting equal admissions to all students in the county would serve those students better than limiting access to the charter based on where they live.  

Under a district-approved charter, admissions preference is granted to district students in the event of full enrollment and a public admissions lottery, says the press release. 

“What saddens me about this case is the fact that it was completely unnecessary, as the law was always clearly in support of the Board of Education’s decision,” said Krystal Lomanto, Superintendent of the San Benito County Office of Education. “As a result of this case, our county office has been forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars that should have been invested into supporting our work, our students and families and not defending a frivolous case.”

To date, the San Benito County Office of Education has spent $143,493.17 in litigation costs as well as $66,930.65 in public records requests from the SBHSD, says the release. These costs do not include SBHSD’s expenses to initiate litigation, or the cost to the Polytechnical Academy Charter, who was also named in the lawsuit. 

In a statement, SBHSD spokesperson Adam Breen said on behalf of the district that the district is “disappointed” in the court’s recent decision. 

“Under California law, countywide charter petitions are an ‘exception’ to the rule that local school districts should authorize charter petitions,” the statement continues. “The district is a strong believer in providing quality educational choices for local families, and as a district we work hard to offer a multitude of pathways and programs to meet student needs. 

“The lawsuit was never motivated by a desire to deny families the ability to choose alternative education options for their children. Instead, it was motivated by a desire to make sure that families could choose from among quality options within our county. In addition to our concerns about whether the charter was properly approved by the County Board of Education as a countywide charter, our district conducted an in-depth review of the plan proposed by the charter school petitioners. 

“We found it woefully deficient and unlikely to be successful as a result of many shortcomings that demonstrate a lack of education expertise by proposed charter school leaders,” the district’ statement added. “We found it deficient in terms of its budget, its ability to adequately staff the program proposed, its ability to deliver on the promised dual enrollment program, and its ability to meet the needs of English learner and special education students, among many other items.

“These defects have caused us great concern about the quality of the program that students will receive if families choose to attend the Charter School.

“The district maintains that the Polytechnic Academy is an unnecessarily duplicative program of existing programs that wastes taxpayer resources better allocated to existing needs in existing programs, as evidenced in part by the fact that Polytechnic Academy has failed to open as promised.”