Denied an opportunity this week to demonstrate to the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Trustees their compliance and qualifications for $11.5 million in state rehabilitation funds, leadership of the Charter School of Morgan Hill presented their case in four three-minute segments.
The quartet of speakers at the Nov. 7 school board meeting made enough of an impression on the Morgan Hill school board that five trustees agreed to discuss the charter qualifications as an agenda item at an upcoming board meeting. It was not determined, whether that would be during a regular or special session.
“I would like to give the board the opportunity to consider reiterating the support we gave on May 16, notwithstanding the issues I think we must address regarding some of the funding and other charter issues that have been raised by the district,” said Trustee David Gerard, who was supported in that effort by vice president Tom Arnett as well as trustees Mary Patterson and Gino Borgioli.
Board president Donna Ruebusch also requested a public discussion on the charter issue to answer several questions she had regarding their finances, including whether they met a July 1 deadline for providing all budgetary documents to the district and if the charter’s payroll is dependent on donations or private funds.
“I’d like to better understand the role of the private donations,” said Ruebusch, who, along with Trustee Ron Woolf, was against the school board’s May 16 approval for support of the charter’s Prop. 51 application to the state. “I’d like to (review) the charter school plan for addressing the deficit spending beyond private donations.”
Charter leaders say their piece
With a visual timeline displayed for trustees to follow her remarks during the public comment portion of the Nov. 7 meeting, Charter Principal Susan Pfefferlen outlined the series of events that led to a negative declaration from the state’s finance authority.
“I keep asking myself how we always seem to be back in the same disheartening place,” said Pfefferlen as she questioned the school district administration’s timing in sending a noncompliance letter to the California School Finance Authority without notifying the charter. “We are scratching our heads trying to understand why nothing would have been communicated to us.”
The local charter applied for a chunk of the $9 billion in Prop. 51 state funding after receiving the required approval from the Morgan Hill board in May, despite opposition from district staff. The $11.5 million was to be used to modernize the old Encinal campus on Monterey Road in the northern outskirts of Morgan Hill. Since then, however, the state authority disqualified them from consideration based on an assessment by district administration that the charter was not in good standing with its authorizer.
At the Nov. 7 meeting, Charter’s chief financial officer, Mary Roensch, covered the issues posed about the school’s finances. She claimed they were “clearly blindsided by the assessment of the CSFA that we were ineligible for the Prop. 51 program because of our lack of financial soundness.” According to Roensch, the charter provided all documents to the county and district verifying their financial stability and multi-year projections in August upon request, and never heard anything back stating otherwise.
“We have not been delinquent in providing any of our ongoing reports required by the district, the county office of education or the state. Our financial audits have had no negative findings,” Roensch said. “There is no question to our financial soundness.”
In his public commentary, Charter board chair Claud Solanas said he was disappointed the issue was left off the Nov. 7 agenda despite the urgency of the matter.
“How and why this is not on tonight’s agenda remains a big unanswered question on many, many minds,” said Solanas, who had also sent an email to board trustees prior to the meeting.
State rehab funds would benefit Morgan Hill students
Charter School Executive Director Paige Cisewski was the last of the four speakers to address the school board during public comments. Like her counterparts, Cisewski defended the charter’s financial status and justification for seeking the state rehab funds to fix up the Encinal site.
Cisewski also mentioned the money would replace the existing portable classrooms, most more than 25 years old, as well as upgrading the school bathrooms built in 1955 and 1960.
“The CSMH students, who are Morgan Hill public school students, deserve a chance to have a more modern, updated facility,” Cisewski said. “This proposition is a win-win for everyone. If we are fortunate enough to receive the funding, it would be used to improve one of the district’s schools at no direct cost to the district.”
In its application, the Morgan Hill charter school requested financing for an $11,577,416 project with half coming from Prop 51 and half via a matching loan from the state. The project includes modernization of four restrooms and nine permanent classrooms as well as modernization or replacement of 11 portable classrooms, according to a May 16 district report.
Lastly, Cisewski requested the board direct the superintendent to submit a positive declaration to the state finance authority and withdraw the previous letter, or pass a resolution at its Dec. 5 meeting “regarding good standing and compliance with the terms of the charter” so they can still be considered for the grant money.
“It would be wonderful if we had a professional, collaborative relationship with district staff, and I continue to hope that we will get there,” Cisewski said. “These disagreements are stressful and frankly take an abundant amount of effort and time that could be directed toward supporting my CSMH staff and improving learning for all students.”
