The Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education is merely employing stalling tactics, according to some who say a 6-1 vote won’t stop Navigator Schools from opening a new charter school in fall 2014.
After MHUSD denied Navigator’s petition Oct. 8, the organization’s co-founder James Dent reiterated he will appeal to the County’s Board of Education by the end of the month.
In the interim, Dent’s staff is collecting the necessary 180 resident signatures for Navigator’s Proposition 39 request. Under that measure, school districts are required to make “reasonably equivalent” facilities available to charter schools upon request.
Superintendent Xavier De La Torre for the Santa Clara County Office of Education said he “anticipated” Navigator to continue forging ahead with its plans, even if MHUSD denied the petition.
A presentation from MHUSD Interim Superintendent Steve Betando outlined Navigator’s educational model as “unsound,” “insufficient” and “not adequate.” A handful of outlined examples include: exclusion of comprehensive strategies to meet the needs of the targeted English Language Learner students, as well as specials needs students with moderate to severe disabilities; teaching framework around the new Common Core Standards; and the proposed certificated teacher-to-student ratio.
“If the (Navigator) petition is deficient as the 6-1 vote indicates, we’re certainly going to find that out and, if that’s the case, we’ll recommend denial as well,” De La Torre said Monday.
The County has approved 12 of 16 petitions since 2003 that were previously denied by a local school board.
President Grace Mah of the County School Board characterized the vitriol that often arises from this type of situation.
“The local school districts, in some cases, really hate us or really resent us going against the local district’s decision,” she admitted. “They really feel they’ve done a fair analysis and feel they had adequate reasons to deny a petition.”
Navigator has 180 days to appeal to the County, which will hold a public hearing within 30 days of receiving the appeal. From there, the County has 30 days to issue a decision.
Dent said he is “moderately confident” Navigator’s petition will be approved by the County, but is also “extremely confident in the petition … our academic performance … and our fiscal management.”
If denied, Dent – who along with his team has already opened two charter schools in Gilroy and Hollister – said Navigator is prepared to take the next step by appealing to the State’s Board of Education.
If the petition is approved, the County will be responsible for operational oversight of Morgan Hill Prep.
Meanwhile, MHUSD must also review and vote Nov. 8 on a second charter petition submitted by San Jose-based Rocketship Education.
If denied, Rocketship leaders say they will also appeal to the County, which previously granted Rocketship a county-wide petition to open more than 20 of its charter schools in 2010.
But even though Rocketship already has the go-ahead from the County, organizers are still taking a step suggested by De La Torre. He encourages charter companies to first petition to the local district of wherever the charter wishes to open.
De La Torre also pointed out: If a charter meets the elements required of a petition, the County School Board has traditionally been “far less critical” to issues that were otherwise deal breakers for local school districts.
There are 16 elements the County Board must take into consideration when reviewing a charter school petition. Some of these include: A sound educational plan; and if that educational plan can be successfully implemented; enough signatures of interest; and is there a sound fiscal plan?
As far as MHUSD Superintendent Steve Betando is concerned, “it was pretty clear [Navigator’s] petition did not meet the criteria. The Morgan Hill Unified Board denied it on the merits of the petition as it was presented.”
That call is now up to County staff.
First, the County’s Office of Innovative Schools, a six-member department that reviews charter petitions and provides charter school oversight, will draw its own conclusions and make a recommendation.
Additionally, De La Torre, along with County trustee Julia Hover-Smoot, a 27-year Morgan Hill resident who previously served on the MHUSD School Board for six years, will tour Navigator’s Gilroy Prep campus today, Friday morning.
Hover-Smoot noted state education law “provides rather narrow grounds for denying a charter on appeal.”
Mah pointed out that charters like Navigator and Rocketship, which target low socio-economic students in impoverished neighborhoods, are given even more leeway. Guidelines under the California Charter School Act are “very permissive” and “encouraging” to allow charter schools to open in targeted areas unless the charter management company’s petition doesn’t meet those requirements, she said.
“By reaching out to this at-risk demographic, charters are providing another option to families who are not being well served by the current status quo,” Hover-Smoot added.
The MHUSD Board of Education and some teachers aren’t on that same wavelength.
Mary Alice Callahan, a math teacher at Ann Sobrato High School, described Rocketship as “the Walmart of education,” wanting only to turn a profit at the expense of students’ education.
De La Torre does not agree with this overarching statement, but does point out: there are “very good charters and others that could be driven by a profit motive.”
“I think that given the time, energy and investment that good charter schools dedicate, it would be difficult to convince me that they don’t care about students and their families,” he continued.
Pro-charter parents like Sue Stapleton, a mother of two MHUSD students, underlined the need for more educational options in Morgan Hill.
“While I realize that charter schools are not for everybody, they might be right for my child and they might not for the next person, but we should have the ability to choose,” she said.
Resident Ray Blanchard recently started a “Support Navigator Charter School in Morgan Hill” petition. He hopes to get at least 50 signatures before delivering it to the County and MHUSD. As of Wednesday, there were three signatures that can be viewed at petitions.moveon.org/sign/support-navigator-charter?source=c.em.mt&r_by=9233027.
In two polls conducted on the Morgan Hill Times website, which is riddled with reader comments voicing strong opinions on both sides of the fence, residents voted 204-103 in favor of a Rocketship charter and 57-45 in favor of a Navigator charter.
“I see it as an issue of equity,” Hover-Smoot concluded. “We cannot guarantee equal outcome – we all have different talent, skills and work ethic – but we can do our best to provide equal opportunity to all our citizens.”
