With Live Oak High School’s theater bursting at the seams with an overflow of audience members for the Sept. 1 school board meeting, Charter School of Morgan Hill parents, students and faculty presented their case in support of a petition renewal.
As authorizer of the CSMH, which was first unanimously approved in 2001 and renewed twice since then, Morgan Hill Unified School District and its board of education have oversight over its operations. Every five years, MHUSD staff and trustees review the CSMH’s updated petition—in this case a 923-page application—and then vote on continuing the partnership.
The hearing was designed to gather input ahead of the school board’s vote on the renewal, scheduled to take place at a future board meeting.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Board President Bob Benevento held up a cardboard box filled with more than 200 speaker cards for the CSMH public hearing. However, CSMH representatives agreed to have only a hand-selected 13 speakers take the podium on the school’s behalf.
Unlike previous charter petition hearings in Morgan Hill—such as Navigator Schools, Rocketship Education and Voices College-Bound Dual Language Academy—the tone of the speakers was not attacking on the shortcomings of the local district schools, but rather praise to the project-based learning formula used at CSMH.
“I think it is important to emphasize that this was always about taking advantage of an amazing opportunity,” said Dana Miller, one of the CSMH’s founding members. “CSMH has always been for something. It has never been against something else.”
Miller’s words were proceeded by a loud applause from the hundreds of CSMH supporters in attendance, a common theme throughout Tuesday’s public hearing.
Dana Ditmore, a retired engineer and member of the CSMH foundation’s board of directors for the last two years, focused on the project based learning model and how it directly correlates to success in the real world.
“I think the project based learning is real life problem solving. That’s how problems are solved in business,” said Ditmore, who urged the MHUSD board to help “continue this legacy” of CSMH within the Morgan Hill community.
School board trustees and district staff listened attentively from their perch on the theater stage as speaker after speaker offered their praises of CSMH, a kindergarten through eighth grade school. Earlier, Benevento reminded audience members that the public hearing would not include any debate or discussion from trustees, and that a vote on the renewal would be taken at a future board meeting.
Eighth grade student Rosalind Nevarez shared her experience at CSMH after transferring in from P.A. Walsh Elementary School as a fifth-grader. Nevarez said she was struggling to stay engaged and losing interest in her studies before switching schools.
“The lessons challenged me in ways I’ve never experienced,” said Nevarez, who has two younger brothers also attending CSMH. “For the first time in my life, I wanted to come to school every day and do my best. Charter’s project based learning helps me feel engaged every day.”
Ann Sobrato High School senior Michael Sutter, one of two alumni who spoke of the educational foundation and drive that was instilled in them early on, credited his experiences at CSMH for his continued success and active role in high school.
“We take the lessons and guiding principles of our charter school education of working hard, collaborating with others, persevering through difficulties, leading by example, taking risks, giving back to our community and bring those attributes to our Morgan Hill high schools,” Sutter said.
Parent Anabel Gonzalez tackled any presumptions of a lack of student diversity, namely from the Hispanic community, within the CSMH—which is located in the northern outskirts of Morgan Hill and, with that, presents a challenge of transportation for some parents.
“We do exist,” said Gonzalez, whose four children attend CSMH dating back to 2004 and praised CSMH for going “above and beyond” in recruiting Hispanic families to attend the school. “CSMH has had a huge impact on our lives. CSMH has taught us the value of a good education.”
After the 13th and final speaker of the public hearing finished up, Benevento thanked everyone for coming and let the CSMH community know that he received more than 110 emails in support of the renewal.
“I do appreciate your thoughts and sentiments,” the board president said.
The next regularly scheduled school board meeting is Sept. 15.
