If the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s Board of Education once again follows the recommendation offered by Interim Superintendent Steve Betando, then Rocketship Education’s charter petition will suffer the same fate as Navigator Schools’ did one month earlier.
The seven-member Board will vote during Tuesday night’s special meeting inside the district office meeting room at 15600 Concord Circle in Morgan Hill.
The same Board voted 6-1 to deny Navigator’s charter petition in October with trustee Rick Badillo casting the lone opposing vote.
That meeting was held in the Britton Middle School gymnasium to accommodate a crowd of hundreds in attendance for the Navigator vote as well as the Rocketship public hearing.
Last week, Navigator and Rocketship – both intent on opening new charter schools in Morgan Hill for the start of the 2014-15 school year – submitted their Proposition 39 requests to the district office. Under that measure, school districts are required to make “reasonably equivalent” facilities available to charter schools upon request.
Also, Navigator officially submitted its petition on appeal to the Santa Clara County Office of Education last week. Rocketship plans to do the same, if MHUSD’s Board denies its petition at Tuesday’s meeting.
Rocketship was previously denied by Morgan Hill’s City Council on a $50 million bond issuance, part of which would fund the construction of a school facility on the 1.66-acre vacant lot at the corner of San Pedro and Church avenues (behind World Gas).
Director of Development Jessica Garcia-Kohl said Rocketship’s first choice would be to build a school on the property located about a mile south of the downtown off Monterey Street. However – unsure if the Council will grant them the bond issuance without MHUSD approval of its petition – Rocketship filed a Prop 39 facilities request to have another option.
In his recommendation to deny Rocketship’s petition, Betando said the organization “presents an unsound educational program for the students to be enrolled in the charter school”; is “demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the program set forth in the petition”; and “does not contain the number of signatures required by Education Code.” Betando’s report was posted on the district’s website Friday along with the Nov. 5 special meeting agenda. Betando is expected to give a presentation – along with members of his staff – during Tuesday’s meeting.
Other key points outlined in Betando’s presentation is that Rocketship allegedly provided an unrealistic financial and operational plan, and has an unfamiliarity with the Morgan Hill community. The report also states that Rocketship has “a past history of involvement in charter schools that MHUSD regards as unsuccessful.”
The same level of scrutiny was given to Navigator’s petition, which will now be reviewed by staff at the Santa Clara County Office of Education, discussed in a public hearing hosted by the County Board, and then voted on by its seven trustees. If approved, the SCCOE, not MHUSD, will have operational oversight of Navigator and the organization will be allowed to open a school in fall of next year.
Most recently, Morgan Hill teachers, along with hundreds of residents, have rallied around the district’s opposition of both charter schools. Last week, staff from several Morgan Hill elementary schools greeted parents as children were being picked up from school with anti-charter informational material. One pamphlet had the headline, “Why You Should be Concerned with Proposed Navigator and Rocketship Charters in Morgan Hill” – along with an invitation to go online and sign the petition.
That petition, titled “Support Morgan Hill Schools, Stop Navigator and Rocketship Charters” and created by parent Mario Banuelos along with a group of “concerned [Morgan Hill] parents, community members and educators,” has 482 electronic signatures as of today, Monday.
A pro-charter petition, launched by Ray Blanchard, a member of Navigator’s Board of Advisors, currently has 178 votes.
