It’s interesting how much power school districts can have. Apparently, it doesn’t matter which direction the lack of trust comes from. It could be lack of openness, not following some simple rules, or having conflicts of interest.
See this article from the July 8 North County Times.
ENCINITAS: School board to proceed with revoking academy’s charter
By BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer - North County Times | ∞
ENCINITAS —- After an intense two-hour meeting in which tears occasionally flowed, the Encinitas Union School District unanimously agreed to push forward Tuesday with plans to revoke the Theory Into Practice Academy’s charter.
Board members said they were taking the step to issue a “notice to revoke” because they no longer had any faith that the school could competently handle its affairs or that its leaders would act in an aboveboard fashion.
“We would not be here tonight if there were not the illegal actions (by the school’s leaders) ��- illegal actions and the lack of trust,” board President Cathy Regan said.
Her comments, and those by other board members, drew cries of protest from some 100 academy supporters who packed the board’s meeting room.
Several of them urged the district to give the school a second chance, saying its old leaders have been dismissed and it is being run by mostly new board members.
“I implore you to please meet with us as a board so we can come to some common understanding,” said academy board member Kelly Ma.
But district officials said their trust in the academy was long gone.
Superintendent McLean King said the school’s former leaders had engaged in repeated, willful violations of the state’s open meeting laws over many months and had disregarded conflict of interest problems. He said the new leadership, which includes a board president whose wife until last week occasionally worked at the school, doesn’t show proof that the situation is improving.
The district’s next step will be a public hearing on the issue within 30 days, followed by a board vote, officials said.
If the board votes to revoke the charter, the academy’s leaders could appeal the decision to the county and ultimately the state Board of Education. Whether the school will remain open during that process would be decided during the appeal, the district’s attorney said.
Several district board members said Tuesday that they didn’t believe that two administrators at the academy whose contracts have been terminated recently —- Deborah and Michael Hazelton —- have actually stopped working for the school.
For several months, the district has been investigating allegations of conflict of interest and fiscal mismanagement at the two-year-old charter school, which was founded by a group of teachers led by Deborah Hazelton. The district has alleged that board members benefited financially from hiring decisions and that financial documentation from the school is woefully incomplete.
In early May, the district issued a list of changes that it wanted at the school. Paul Minney, an attorney representing the charter school, said Tuesday that the academy has met nearly all of those demands in recent weeks, including removing several conflicted board members and dismissing the Hazeltons.
The only large item left is getting the administrators to pay back the salaries they received, and the school’s board is looking into that, he said.
If there are other issues, “we’ll cure them, but we didn’t have advance notice and the opportunity to cure,” he said.
After he spoke, several parents made impassioned pleas to the board, saying the school’s teachers were amazing and they didn’t know what they would tell their children if the school was forced to close.
Dale Perkins, whose 11-year-old son attends the school, said her son has made impressive academic progress in two years.
“Last evening, when he heard (that the district might revoke the charter), he cried himself to sleep with his TIP Academy yearbook in his arms,” she said, her voice breaking.
As she told the story, at least a half-dozen parents and teachers in the audience also begin to wipe away tears.
The academy, which has about 280 students, is Encinitas Union’s only charter school. Charter schools receive public funding, but operate somewhat outside the regular school system. They report to their sponsoring districts, but have their own boards and are exempt from some of the requirements placed on traditional public schools.
