Despite what school board trustees called a wonderful academic
program, Charter School of Morgan Hill officials were chastised by
the board after their annual report during the Nov. 6 meeting.
Morgan Hill
Despite what school board trustees called a wonderful academic program, Charter School of Morgan Hill officials were chastised by the board after their annual report during the Nov. 6 meeting.
The bone of contention is the school’s lack of racial diversity. According to information presented by Principal Paige Cisewski, the school’s student population this year is composed of 1 percent American Indian or Alaska native, 13.3 percent Asian, Pacific Islander and Filipino, 18.4 percent Hispanic or Latino, 2.8 percent African American, 1 percent non chosen or multiple chosen and 63.6 percent white.
“We have a really high retention rate, and while that is a good thing, it makes it much more difficult to change the balance,” Cisewski said. “We’re working toward that growth, but it’s something that takes some time. What we have the most influence over is who we can get to apply to the school. I was really happy with those numbers this year.”
In her report to the board, Cisewski said applicants to the school lottery were becoming more diverse. Of the 294 applicants this year, 52 percent were white, 5 percent were African American, 23 percent were Hispanic or Latino, 19 percent were Asian, Pacific Islander and Filipino and 1 percent was American Indian or Alaska native.
When the school has openings for new students, Cisewski said, students on the waiting list are entered into a lottery, so the selection of the students to fill those slots is completely random.
“We don’t get to choose who gets to come in,” she said.
The school would be guilty of discrimination if it selected students of a certain race to fill the openings.
Board President Peter Mandel told Cisewski that he was tired of hearing that the school has plans to improve the racial mix but without effect.
“I am incredibly frustrated,” he said. “I am tired of seeing the same problem … Every year nothing happens.”
Mandel and other trustees questioned Cisewski about why the school does not have a hot lunch program or transportation available, saying that those two factors would keep low-income families from applying.
“We had a hot lunch program through Morgan Hill Unified, but we didn’t have a whole lot of students participating in it,” she said. “A lot of the kids weren’t eating the lunches, they were throwing them away. The free and reduced lunch students preferred to be able to bring their lunches. We did offer help to all those families.”
Students who need a ride two and from school have a couple of options, she added. The school can arrange for the student to ride with a carpool, or the family can take advantage of the school’s relationship with Extreme Learning, which has a bus to transport students. The school pays the bus cost for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch.
Mandel said he would like to see the school’s board allocate some of the budget to charter a bus, perhaps, or start a lunch program.
“You’re not making any of those really hard choices,” he said. “So either you don’t believe it’s a problem … or you do think it’s a problem but don’t know what to do about it.”
Cisewski said the charter school board would continue to look at those issues and would continue to reach out to the whole community. She said the board had come up with some recruitment ideas, including meeting with Hispanic/Latino groups or clubs at the high schools, because those students might have younger siblings, working with the district’s migrant education program and posting more flyers in Spanish in Morgan Hill.
