Despite continuous critique of Charter School Morgan Hill for
its dissimilar student population compared with Morgan Hill
Unified, the school board of trustees voted 6-1 to renew its
charter for another five years. Trustee Peter Mandel was the sole
nay vote.
Despite continuous critique of Charter School Morgan Hill for its dissimilar student population compared with Morgan Hill Unified, the school board of trustees voted 6-1 to renew its charter for another five years. Trustee Peter Mandel was the sole nay vote.
Charter School opened in 2001 and is under the jurisdiction of MHUSD, but does not employ district-hired staff nor protected by the teacher’s union, and Charter School has its own set of school board members.
The Charter School has been harshly criticized by trustees for years for not having demographics that match the district. About 40 percent of the district’s students are Hispanic while 20 percent of the school’s 527-student population is. Just one English learner student attends Charter School and 107 Hispanic students. Twenty students receive free and reduced lunch, More than 1,300 English learners attend MHUSD’s 15 schools, or roughly 10 percent.
Mandel, who has criticized the lack of diversity for years, pointed to the facts of the student breakdown at Charter.
“I haven’t seen anything to address my concerns. I’m holding my charter school accountable. This is my one lever to try and say I wouldn’t approve it. I would ask that the charter come back with readjusting modifications. A comprehensive transportation program … I don’t know what the right mix is, but I do have evidence the mix is not right,” Mandel said.
The school offers one afternoon bus that drops students off at Extreme Learning for tutoring and this year Charter has offered busing for children identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged, or 20 students. MHUSD has 2,677 students that fall into the socioeconomically disadvantaged category.
Recruitment efforts, including holding Spanish-speaking meetings, haven’t improved matters, according to district data. Charter school employs three Spanish-speaking teachers, disseminates flyers in both languages, and provides school tours in Spanish.
“It’s easy to make up plans that don’t work,” Mandel said.
The school’s location on Monterey Road near Bailey Avenue, about 10 miles north of town, has been the catalyst for a disparate number of Hispanic students at Charter School, according to people on either side of the issue. Opponents say the location will continue to discourage non-white students and low-income students to attend. While supporters advocate that moving the campus to the vacant Burnett site would fix the demographics issue. Nonethless, the lottery system in place is legal and mirrored at other charters around the state.
“We use a statistically fair way of choosing students,” Charter School parent Gary Luke said during the public comment section of the board meeting Tuesday.
The lottery system is done just like a lottery, children are given a number and numbers are randomly chosen publicly. The criticism of the system is over the preference given to siblings at Charter; a sibling of a Charter student is automatically admitted. Thus, the school’s new students are usually kindergarten or first-graders – closing an already small window of opportunity to be chosen.
In March, Charter School admitted 62 new students for the 2010-11 school year; 423 applied and 415 students remain on the waitlist.
Luke referenced U.S. Census Bureau statistics that show Hispanic students based on population alone have a greater chance to be chosen in the Charter lottery: On average Hispanic or Latino women bear three children in a lifetime, compared to white women who birth on average two children in a lifetime.
That fact didn’t convince Trustee Mike Hickey, who said the sibling preference will take several lifetimes before any type of shift is made in the demographics of Charter.
“My great, great, great, great grandchildren would finally see real equity (at Charter),” Hickey said. “Though apparently Latinos have more children, it would still take 150 years to get there.”
Trustee President Bart Fisher suggested that Padres Unidos or Co-Lead, two advocacy groups in town, could partner with Charter to talk more about demographics and recruiting Hispanic families to the campus.
The effort to achieve racial and ethnic balance is just one piece of the charter that must be met to be considered for renewal. Charter schools must also maintain a non-discriminatory admission procedure that complies with all laws, fiscal solvency and financial reporting and the school must meet academic performance criteria.
This year, Charter School’s Academic Performance Index score of 887 bested every other school in the district. Since it opened, Charter has unfailingly produced 800-plus scores on the API and parents interested in enrolling their child at the school has increased likewise.
Another point of contention was the lack of collaboration between the Charter and other district schools, since sharing “best practices” has been repeated time and again by Superintendent Wes Smith and others.
“It’s not happening. We are not working together for the good of children. You’re denying your children to deal with diversity. School should mirror the society that they will live in and I don’t think you are doing them any service,” Trustee Kathy Sullivan said. While critical of Charter School, Sullivan did vote in favor of renewal based on the legal lottery system it has in place.
Other board members felt the district could have done more to extend an olive branch to Charter School instead of the current “charter versus traditional” mentality.
“It takes two parties to collaborate,” Trustee Don Moody said. “My sense is there will be more collaboration.”
The test scores of other district schools, Nordstrom Elementary for example, are comparable to Charter School and others such as Paradise Valley and Barret are catching up.
Nordstrom students have scored over 860 in the last five years, while Charter School has maintained an equitable record with scores over 850 since 2006.
“I think our schools offer as much choice as the Charter School,” Trustee Shelle Thomas said. “We have to look at the Charter School’s accomplishments: Strong family involvement, community interaction, working to promote interaction in the city of Morgan Hill.”
Trustee Julia Hover-Smoot is impressed with the Charter School and its always sterling test scores and innovative approach to teaching using project-based instruction.
“I must say I do feel that it’s a bit like, ‘Pull the dirt out of our eye while we pay no attention to the log in our own eye.’ We can’t hold that against you now. We didn’t do anything to support a site change for you,” Hover-Smoot said in reference to a proposed move to Burnett’s vacant campus that was shot down by the school board in January. “I hope in the future we can support your success.”
