In an appeal from the denial of their charter school petition to the Lake Elsinore Unified School District on September 21, representatives of Carden Charter Schools, Inc. appeared before the Riverside County Office of Education to present their case for their proposed K-8 grade public charter school.

The hearing took less than half an hour since the county board members did not have a chance to review the petition. However, Carden proponents met with county of education staff the day before to discuss the appeal process and the use of the county’s matrix evaluation criteria to consider the charter. Additional discussions are planned in the upcoming weeks before the board is required to take action by its November 8 meeting.

Carden Charter School, Inc. founding members initially brought their petition and LEUSD’s first charter school proposal to Superintendent Frank Passarella’s office on July 26. Before a standing-room-only audience in the local school board meeting room on August 24, the trustees listened to the Carden Charter School, Inc. presentation including testimonials from parents, Carden graduates and founding members. School district representatives such as teachers, union advocates and administrators spoke in opposition during the almost two-hour-long hearing. They cited the potential drain of the school district’s resources and the diverse educational choices already available to meet the needs of LEUSD students.

Special counsel for the school district, Sukhi Sandhu, began the discussion with an overview of the laws governing charter schools and the potential liability to which the school district may be exposed. She also questioned the charter school group on various issues that concerned her.

It appeared several signatures on the required signature pages of parents who expressed "meaningful interest" in the charter as required by the Californian education code within the LEUSD and surrounding areas were in similar handwriting on the first page, she said. (She did not return phone calls from a reporter the next week seeking assistance in finding the duplicate signatures she indicated on that page or in the overall petition.)

She also questioned the manner by which the signatures were gathered. The group later explained in a phone interview that the signatures were gathered at small neighborhood meetings held in the school district and elsewhere to find interested families.

Sandhu warned the trustees to carefully examine the petition to ensure it met all of the criteria, such as a sound education program, qualified teachers and administrators, measurable student outcome or performance and sound financial planning.

"The noose seems to be tightening around the authorizing agencies," she said as she explained the potential liability of districts that exercise oversight and sponsor charter schools. "I don’t want Lake Elsinore to be the test district to see what that means."

"We would like to start a charter school in the Elsinore Unified School District," founding member and volunteer legal advisor Barry Walker told the board. He said the group believed the children in the district would benefit from the additional educational choice. Superintendent Passarella said staff had not completed its review of the charter and anticipated a recommendation at the next meeting on September 21.

In a previous interview, the Carden proponents say they decided to approach the LEUSD after the Carden Academy in Temecula lost its lease and the private school would be forced to close. Instead of relocating to another property, Carden Academy administrator and teacher Haran Orton felt it was an opportune time to pursue a dream to make the Carden curriculum available to public school students, not just a private school population.

Ironically, the choice to bring the Carden curriculum to the public education system became a major issue at the September 21 LEUSD board meeting when staff recommended the denial of the charter.

California Education Code 47602(b) in the charter school law prohibits the conversion of a private school into a public charter. School officials and local courts can decide if four elements of a conversion are evident in a charter school proposal, such as the same curriculum, the same employees, the same students and the same location.

Attorney Davina Harden advised the school board at the September meeting. Carden School representatives wrote a letter dated September 7 asking for the replacement of LEUSD counsel Sandhu. In their opinion, they felt she was biased against the charter petition based on her statements at the previous meeting and that her advice severely impacted whether Advertisement

[ Chatton and Associates ] they would receive a fair hearing.

Harden advised the school trustees that that if the charter was approved, it would result in the conversion of a private school into a public charter school.

"It’s basically a replica of Carden Academy," she said. "The school closed concurrently with a request for the charter." She also noted that a phone call to the Carden Academy provided updates to callers of the status of the charter school petition. "This is a strong indicator to us that it is a conversion," she said.

In his remarks, Walker reiterated his belief that this was not a conversion of the Carden Academy. "This is primarily a different staff with the same curriculum," he said. Significant amounts of each element must be met in order to prove a conversion, the charter school group maintains. The employees will be different with the exception of two administrators, the location in the Lake Elsinore school district will be different and the student population will be different. Ninety-five of the 131 signatures in the petition listed an address in the LEUSD indicating the families were "meaningfully interested" in the new charter school by submitting their children’s names and grade levels.

"We will greatly admit the curriculum is the same," said Orton after the county hearing in Riverside. Bringing the Carden curriculum to the public school system was the whole idea behind the charter school in the first place.

"Carden will be different in every respect," with the exception of the curriculum, said Walker at the September meeting. The use of the same phone number does not revive the Carden Academy, he said.

LEUSD administrators also critiqued the charter school budget, lack of special education services and a long list of other deficiencies, they said.

Special education services and English Language Learner (ELL) programs are of critical importance especially in the diverse student population of the school district. Eighteen percent of the students are enrolled in ELL, compared to seven percent at Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) and three percent at Murrieta Valley Unified School District (MVUSD). Special needs students comprise 13 percent of the LEUSD services, with 11 percent at TVUSD and nine percent at MVUSD.

Carden founding member Geri Cole was involved in the approval of two current charter schools in TVUSD and addressed the financial concerns of the LEUSD. The Temecula Learning Center recently boasted the highest Academic Performance Index in Riverside County for middle school students, and Temecula Preparatory School, with its emphasis on a classical curriculum, was rated a nine in test score ratings in 2005. "I’ve been doing this for 20 years," she said. "If it wasn’t clear, your staff could’ve called us."

Referring to the 26-page staff report and resolution recommending denial of the petition received by Carden representatives four days before the September school board meeting, she said it was difficult to address every detail in the short amount of time.

"I would be worried to if I didn’t have a budget," she said, "but that’s not the case."

In regards to the special education services, she said, "We will do what you’d like us to do and nobody asked. Something could’ve been negotiated."

"Nobody called, nobody asked," she said repeatedly.

As far as the curriculum deficiencies, Orton responded in part, "We did align the curriculum with the California state standards of education." She said she put in a rubric with the Carden curriculum methods and state standards side-by-side in the petition. Said Orton, "I wish somebody had called me and engaged me in some dialogue" if the district felt the curriculum description was incomplete or lacking in some areas.

In voting to deny the charter, school board members said the charter was not a good fit for the needs of the LEUSD. They were also unsympathetic to requests for dialogue during the petition review. "Now is not the time," said trustee Jon Gray. "Now that you’ve seen the district’s response you want to revise the charter. The time to revise the charter was a month ago."

"When it comes down to it, it’s about the kids. We want what’s best for our district," he said.

According to Kenn Young, Riverside County Deputy Superintendent of Schools, the county board must approve, deny or ask for an extension by the November 8 meeting. "It’s so new, we haven’t had a chance to dive into [the petition]," he said.