Morgan Hill Unified School District trustees should make up their minds and vote – as it’s legally required to do – next week on whether to accept or reject the petition by Navigator Schools to open an elementary school.
The Times’ Editorial Board delivered an evenly split vote on the matter. Charter schools in general are a hot-button issue. Those against preach patience and perseverance in order to change and improve the public school system as is. Those in favor believe the system, in many cases, has fallen behind and needs to be changed in order for the country, on a macro level, and the community, on a micro level, to keep up with global educational standards.
Surely, it’s a dilemma. This country has been built on the foundational idea that a good public education is available to all. That offers hope for lifelong success and improving one’s lot.
While the Editorial Board split, it also recognized that the likelihood of the Navigator Charter School coming to Morgan Hill is very high. If the MHUSD Board rejects the petition, an appeal will be made to the Santa Clara County Board of Education which has approved the vast number of charter school petitions submitted to them.
On a performance basis, there is little reason to reject the petition. Navigator leader James Dent began a string of wild successes as principal of Eliot Elementary, a poor performing public school in Gilroy. The eye-popping meteoric rise in test scores at Eliot School were followed by Dent and his team opening up Gilroy Prep Charter School. The first state test score numbers were phenomenal: a 970 API score. Moreover, the student population – unlike the current Morgan Hill Charter School, for example – more than reflects the diversity in the community.
Trustees can choose to reject and fight this petition or they can embrace it and support it as an effort to improve the system by staying within it, but altering the rules. Two pieces to the multi-faceted model are exemplified at Gilroy Prep – students wear uniforms and the school day lasts until 4 p.m.
The ball is in the trustees’ court and the decision should be solely based on what’s best for students and the community. The facts have been presented. It’s time for trustees to make a judgment.
