District says they will renew Charter School of Morgan Hill if
issues are resolved
Morgan Hill – Supporters of the Charter School of Morgan Hill do not need to worry about the future of the school, said Morgan Hill School Board trustees, as long as certain issues are resolved.
The last regular district meeting of 2005 was stacked with at least 50 people who were attending the meeting to support CSMH. Several of them spoke during the Dec. 20 public comment section, reciting the school’s laurels and petitioning for renewal of the school’s charter.
“We were trying to honor them,” Trustee Kathy Sullivan said last week. “We are required to review them; we are just doing what is actually stated by the charter itself. And they’ve done an awful lot of work preparing for this review.”
The original charter for the school, which started out in several locations but now resides in the former Encinal School buildings north of Morgan Hill on Monterey Road, was approved five years ago. According to California law, charter schools must be reviewed by the chartering agency every five years.
Supporters of the school showed up prepared to do battle at the Dec. 20 meeting, which was when trustees were first able to address publicly what they had read in the inches-thick document school officials had prepared for their review.
The Times has since received many letters to the editor from CSMH supporters, some accusing trustees of wanting the land or the school buildings and therefore looking for reasons to refuse to renew the charter.
“This was not meant to be any kind of attack, we’re certainly not out to get them,” Sullivan said. “We’re not out to grab their land and buildings. There is no secret plan. It is a review. We do that with our own schools all the time, more frequently in fact. This is something we are charged with doing.”
During the Dec. 20 meeting, trustees brought up two areas of concern: the school’s demographics, which are not as diverse as other schools in the district; and the school’s financial position. Trustees would like the school to have a reserve fund of 3-5 percent of their general fund budget. Right now, there is no reserve fund.
“If I were a parent of a charter school student, I would like the answers to the questions that were raised,” said School Board President Mike Hickey. “Do we have money in reserve? Why did our ranking drop from a 10 to a 5 with like schools? Is our school accessible to all students? These seem like very reasonable questions. The charter school and the District office have very competent people working on the charter. I am very confident that they will be able to work through the issues raised.”
Trustee Amina Khemici said she was concerned that the school’s racial and socio-economic make-up does not more closely resemble that of the district. But, she said, she realized the school could not start from scratch with a new population of students.
“We are moving toward resolution of issues, with requirements to fix certain issues, specifically racial/socioeconomic imbalance, and we would be looking to incremental improvements,” she said. “I hope we can resolve these issues soon.”
The district’s Hispanic population is approximately 40 percent of its total student population. Trustee Peter Mandel told fellow board members that, according to his research, the Hispanic population at CSMH is approximately 16 percent, “possibly as low as 12 percent.”
Students that fall into the low socio-economic category make up approximately 27 percent of the district’s population; Mandel said students in that category at CSMH only make up approximately 7 percent of the total population.
Trustee Shelle Thomas said the district wants to work with the school so the charter can be renewed, but there are some adjustments that the school needs to make.
“Nothing is constant, wouldn’t we love a world that is constant,” she said last week. “We continue to strive for improvements. The charter’s foundation is based on community interaction. We want to continue to see a powerful educational experience for our children. This is a 60-day review process. In it, we’re looking for continuing quality, because they have quality, and we’re looking for equity. We’re being proactive by bringing these concerns up in the early stages of the process so we can review and approve it in end.”
Hickey said charter school officials were working with Assistant Superintendent Michael Johnson during the holiday break to complete revisions of the charter document. Revisions and plans for improvement need to be in place before the issue comes before trustees again during their Jan. 24 regular meeting.
The charter for CSMH was approved in 2001 and the school opened in August 2002 in three separate locations while waiting for renovations to be completed on the space in the Albertson’s shopping center. The school moved into its new quarters that first year, but soon outgrew the space. The district offered the former Encinal School, as state law requires the chartering agency to provide facilities when available for their charter schools.
