The Tri-Valley Learning Corporation's latest attempt to open a third charter school in town was unanimously rejected Tuesday by the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District Board of Education, according to a report by the Valley Times.
This was the second attempt by the corporation to get a petition to open the proposed Portola Academy K-8 school approved by the district in 12 months.
Further details from the Valley Times report:
A report by the district's staff said the petition for Portola Academy lacked a clear description of its educational program; did not have clear plan to attract a racially and ethnically balanced student population; would not be able to successfully implement its programs; and questioned its financial plan.
The original petition was first denied by the district in October 2011. It also was later denied by the Alameda County Board of Education and the state Board of Education earlier this year.
View the full Valley Times report on the Contra Costa Times website.
Livermore's school district is in NO position to be judging or measuring anyone else when it comes to financial feasibility or membership percentages (it's a lottery system, idiots). By the way, actions like this by LVJUSD make supporting ballot measures 30 and 38 a lot harder to justify.
Charter-schools-and-their-students-have-a-right-to-defend-themselves-from-biased-attacks.
If you really care about children, look at the programs that are offered. Look at the APIs. Then tell me that they aren't receiving a good education.
It may be one thing for a child to know that 2+2=4, but I would also expect the child that knows that to also know exactly why 2+2=4, not that it just does. Knowing why 2+2=4 will take your child farther along in their education than knowing that the answer on the test for 2+2=4. And if your kids aren't taught how 2+2=4, how are they going to learn anything else the rest of their life? And as for wait lists, that may be more of how a school may be advertised out there and that some schools out there have generated enough "buzz" out there that parents are convinced that they should bring their children to these schools. But education is more than just waiting lists and test scores. I would think curriculum has something to do with that, what kind of funding and what kind of mandate they have from their benefactors or even the community in the case of a charter school and what kind of families support this school and its students. But what do I know, I don't have kids, but I come from a family of teachers, though.
They are required BY LAW to review the charter and if said charter doesn't pass muster, they deny it. LVCS can always go to the county and then the state, which is what they did last time around and got denied at all 3 levels. Now, they're trying again. Hopefully, it goes better for them this time around. While they are not off to a good start (getting denied again at the district level), they still have 2 shots left, and I have a hunch they will eventually prevail. If *I* wanted something bad enough, I would work with the powers that be to ensure that we all got what we wanted. It seems to me that LVCS hasn't had that epiphany yet. Perhaps their leadership ought to do some introspection.
Thank you all for this dialogue and for reassuring me that we are more similar than we are different. We all care, love and value our children. The four reasons above is why I feel strongly about a Parents right to seek out and choose the school of their choice. Thank You and God Bless all of you
I also question your statement: "Based on data and research I would not put my children at the Livermore Valley Charter School. Education is too important." So what you're saying is that based on your research and data you would choose to not put your children there. Ok, good. You're all about choice, right? Then why do you want to shut down their charter and deny me the right to choose for my child? If LVCS is shut down, LVJUSD can expect litigation. You cannot shut down a school on the basis of racial or ethnic "balance" without that decision impacting individual students at that school. Simply put, you're making a decision that is in itself discriminatory. It may be inconvenient for you, but the law protects Caucasians, Asians, Indians and other races of people besides blacks and hispanics. Tread lightly, liberals. You'll be begging for tort reform if you keep this BS up.
I wish you all luck in your endeavor.
As for breaking laws, it depends on their actions. You cannot cause material harm to someone because of the color of their skin. By shutting LVCS down because there aren't enough minorities you are causing material harm to the current participants by basing it on a racial component. As much as liberalism hates it, discriminating against whites, asians and indians is still descrimination! So what, exactly, are you against here? As for you "working with socio-economically challenged children and their families", congratulations. That doesn't mean that those communities don't have consistently lower test scores and higher drop-out rates. Why, again, does my child need to be slowed down by them?
You're right. I have no respect for people that don't place their children front and center. I have no respect for people that claim to be for a premise like choice yet set up "established parameters" to deny me a choice. And I have no respect for institutionalized discrimination, which is exactly what was committed when the decision to deny the charter was made! Discrimination is discrimination, no matter what color it is being applied against. As for closing Marylin, you need to read more carefully. My point is that if denying the charter (and thus ultimately shutting down the school) was about scores, you would have to shut down Marylin too. But I don't see any of you calling for that! So why is it that you feel like you have the right to shut down LVCS? Good day.
Next. You keep talking about the district trying to shut LVCS down. This article is not at all about shutting down the existing LVCS campuses. It is about the Livermore School Board denying the petition to open a third school. I’m unclear as to how you read this article, and took it to mean that the district was trying to shut down the existing charter schools.
Finally, let’s talk for a minute about Marylin Avenue, LVCS, and how they compare. You keep mentioning API, so I went to the California Department of Education’s website to gather some data. If we just look at API vs. API, we’re comparing apples to oranges. The demographics of the two schools are very different. Surely, you would agree that students who are learning English as a second language and students who are living in poverty have hurdles to overcome that native English speaking middle class students don’t have to worry about. So let’s do what we can to look at data that strips out those differences. Let’s just look at the Caucasian API’s of both schools. LVCS has a Caucasian API of 912 while Marylin Avenue’s is 873. Both are very strong showings.
It is too big to upload. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVd_BQOpKBY