The kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school idea was
well-received by the school board.
The kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school idea was well-received by the school board.
“Before I get any more excited than I already am,” school board Trustee Don Moody said at Tuesday night’s meeting, “How do we fund this school?”
Moody began the conversation with the hundred-thousand-dollar question – the answer is with a plethora of grants of which Barrett Principal Lisa Atlas is aggressively applying – but the meat of the discussion was dedicated to English language learners, known colloquially as ELLs.
Board members were intrigued by the idea of either a charter school focused on better educating English language learners or a school for visual and performing arts. The third option was a hybrid of the two and thought to be too ambitious of a goal for now. The charter school could open at vacant Burnett Elementary as early as this fall if it passes several hurdles and a school board vote. The charter would be governed by the Morgan Hill Unified School District, unlike Charter School of Morgan Hill that is overseen by the state, and therefore funded and supplied with teachers and students by the school district in the same way as a public school. However, unlike other district schools, the new “dependent” charter school could hire nonunion teachers.
Parents would have the choice to enroll their child in the charter school and boundaries would not be geographical but open to any district child.
“This could be a good way to serve segments of our population that aren’t served as well,” said Vice President Peter Mandel, “We have a population of ELL kids who are bright, but frustrated with the challenges.”
Board members leaned toward supporting the English language learning school over an arts–focused charter, but asked Atlas to detail a definitive schedule for what is needed in order to open either school. The deadline has passed to apply for a start–up $500,000 grant from the state, but Atlas and Superintendent Dr. Wes Smith said many other grants are available that support starting a charter school. Both acknowledged that the district has saved $400,000 from closing Burnett and if the new charter did not open until fall 2011, another $400,000 would be saved.
Immersing English language learning children in a charter school would, “increase their confidence, instead of comparing themselves to English-speaking students. A more language–balanced school will … allow students to take more risks to learn more,” Atlas said.
Called the “elephant in the room” was whether or not the charter would be segregating Hispanic students, which make up the bulk of English language learners.
Trustee Julia Hover-Smoot was outspoken about what she said could be the “ghettoization” or “tracking” of students who would be sequestered at Burnett. The district could not force any child to attend the charter, rather parents would need to identify their child as needing extra help and enroll them.
Still, “to me it doesn’t seem like the right idea. I know they have specific needs but I hate moving them into a school where they’re separated out,” Hover-Smoot said.
Atlas had a simple answer for that.
“When a student has special education needs, when any student has needs … we meet those needs,” Atlas said. “So in looking at an ELL student, I’m not looking at a segregation of color, I’m looking at meeting the linguistic needs of our ELLs – the lowest achieving subgroup in Morgan Hill.”
Dr. Smith said that “these places (ELL charters) exist because they are defensible” in courtrooms because it gives parents the choice.
The achievement gap between ELLs and English-only students is no secret in MHUSD, Dr. Smith recognizes that, and since he was hired in November he has looked at new, innovative ways at mending the substandard areas and challenging staff, students and the community to improve upon the MHUSD experience.
“Sometimes certain causes are worth the fight,” Dr. Smith said. “We think this is one that you ought to consider is worth the fight,” he said to the school board. Dr. Smith said he believes the English language learning charter is needed more than the arts school, but he would not advocate pushing through either school to open this year if after more research they find the community is not interested. He said the he believed an arts charter would fill up easily, as they do in many places around the state.
Theresa Sage, president of Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, said she was concerned at both an education level and at a union level about the charter school proposal. Sage spoke to the board before Atlas’ presentation, but made clear her great concern. A teacher who wants to move to the charter school would not be protected by the union. Dr. Smith said teachers could keep their seniority in MHUSD if they taught at the charter for a year on a leave of absence, for example.
“We’re not trying to have a ‘caught ya’ with the Federation of Teachers,” Smith said. It’s expected the charter school idea will be a topic for all bargaining units to discuss in the coming months.
The charter school model would include an extra hour per day of school. Atlas said that teachers would simply agree to work the extra hour since charters work outside of the bargaining agreements that public schools must follow. Right now, the recommendation is for 25 staff members to serve 456 students at the charter, but that number is flexible. It could be that the charter begins with fewer teachers and grades and then grows as parents become more interested.
A report in June 2009 by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that for students who are low income, charter schools had a larger and more positive effect than for similar students in traditional public schools. English language learner students also reported significantly better gains in charter schools, while special education students showed similar results to their traditional public school peers, according to the peer-reviewed study.
Board president Bart Fisher and Mandel encouraged Atlas to contact the board as soon as she could if she finds it’s feasible to garner enough support from the community as well as enough funding through grants. Then, the school board can further discuss opening a charter school for this fall or fall 2011. Mandel said they could call a special meeting to look at the proposal if needed and vote on which charter option would be best for MHUSD. The next scheduled school board meeting is 6 p.m. April 20.
