Overlooked law ties school districts’ hands

There is a little-known law which controls what a school district can and can’t do with property they own.

The Naylor Act (Education Code sections 17485-1750) requires school districts, who propose to lease or sell land used for outdoor recreation and open space land suited for recreational purposes, to offer to lease or sell a portion of the land at discount to either a city or county, whichever has jurisdiction.

School Board moves to close charter school

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 | Tuesday, July 8, 2008 11:00 PM PDT ∞

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.

Emergency special HOA meeting called! - May 6th

The La Costa Valley HOA is having a special HOA meeting on Tuesday May 6th at 7pm, at the Coastline Community Church on Calle Barcelona.

The topic of the meeting is the vacant property next to the church, and how much we will be involved in its future. Specifically, the meeting is regarding La Costa Valley Master Assoc.’s authority-limitations and capabilities regarding School District property.

• Can La Costa Valley Homeowners have a say in the use of the property?
  • Will this be as citizens of the City of Carlsbad?
  • Will this be through the LCV Homeowner’s Association?
  • Will our voices be heard as parents of middle-age school children?

It’s very important that homeowners get involved now however they feel about the school district’s property.

Please tell your La Costa Valley friends and neighbors about the meeting, because we did not get much advance notice.

There’s the possibility that this special HOA Board meeting may not be valid for any voting purposes.

• According to the HOA by-laws, we need to be told about upcoming meetings well in advance. Notice for HOA special meetings must be within 20 days after a board president calls a special a meeting or after the board receives a petition asking for one, and must be no sooner than 35 days and no later than 90 days after that decision or petition. See section 4.6 in the by-laws on the official La Costa Valley HOA website (you will need Adobe PDF).
• The notice will be in the paper newsletter, but at best that will only arrive one or two days before the meeting, certainly not enough time for busy La Costa Valley HOA homeowners to change their schedules.

If you can not come to the meeting, contact the professional management company for the LCV HOA at the following contact numbers:
http://www.lacostavalleyhoa.com/important_phone_numbers/index.html

Latest email from FONC (Mar 28)

This is the latest email from the Friends of North County.

They’ve admitted they don’t have non-profit status. That’s curious because they said before they formed in 2006 and it doesn’t take so many years to attain that status. In any case, it’s unclear what would happen with whatever contributions they get.

Friends
 
While we are responding as quickly as we can to your emails and questions, we wanted to take this opportunity to share a few points with you and to ask for your help. 
 

• Many of you have asked for details about where you can send your donation.  Please make your checks payable to Friends of North County.  They can be sent to 1042 North El Camino Real P.O. Box 237, Encinitas, CA  92024.  Friends of North County is a non-profit organization.  We have applied for tax deductible status but we are still awaiting that designation.  It may take many months for that to occur (and there are no guarantees that it will).  We will let you know if we are granted that designation but urge you NOT to wait for that to occur before you send in your donation. 

•  Several of you have forwarded your thoughts to us since our presentation earlier this week.  Your input and comments help us to better understand the community’s perspective and the level of support we can count on as we continue this process.  We also request that you share your thoughts with your friends and neighbors as well.  For those of you who have not sent us your comments, we ask that you take a few minutes and send us an email with the information noted below.  Please send your comments to mail@friendsofnorthcounty.org.  To help inform the community, we may post excerpts of your emails on our website (no names, email address, or contact information will be displayed).  Please provide us with your thoughts in general about the issues but also include the following:

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  • What you have learned from our recent presentation;

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  • Your thoughts about how the school district has dealt with us;

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  • Why you believe the school district has responded the way they have;
    

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  • Whether or not you believe the school district (their employees and their elected officials) should be held accountable for their actions; and
    

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  • Do you believe you were misled by the school district’s seven year promotion and signage campaign advertising the “future middle school.”

•  We are looking to expand our media relationships.  If any of you have strong ties to the media, we would appreciate a referral.  We are looking for local media contacts, but also for national media contacts focused on investigative reporting (20/20, 60 Minutes, Primetime, etc.).  While we have limited our focus to this particular school district, this particular property, and the specific use of taxpayer funds for which we are all paying $800 per year for thirty-five years, known as CFD 94-2 (Mello Roos), we also are aware of similar issues throughout California (and we believe the nation) where school districts are taking advantage of taxpayers.  We believe our story has national significance and that promoting what we have learned (and will be learning) will benefit our community, as well as taxpayers and government officials across the country. 

Again we restate what we have posted in the past.  The school district has all of our contact information.  We continue to hope that they will decide to work with us in this matter to reach a solution.  Until that happens (or in case it does not) we will not be deterred by the school district’s campaign of misinformation, propaganda, and scare tactics.  The history of the district’s actions can’t be changed.  They can’t erase it, get rid of it, or avoid it.  We have taken the time to learn those facts and are determined to learn more.Thank you again for your input, support and comments.

Sincerely,

Friends of North County