By Diana Lambert, EdSource
Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools is still looking for a home after a petition to move the controversial Sacramento-based adult charter school under the authorization of Yuba City Unified was denied by its board Tuesday night.
Now, it will look to the Sutter County Office of Education for oversight.
If approved, the charter school will be renamed the California Learning Academy, and will be primarily nonclassroom-based with onsite classrooms for career technical education and English learners.
“It would give our students flexibility to be synchronous, asynchronous or to do independent study,” said Jonathan Raymond, executive director of Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools Thursday. “It’s also modeled after best practices around the country for charters that are serving adults.”
The charter school opened in 2014 with the aim of helping adult students, many formerly incarcerated or new immigrants, to earn a diploma, improve English language skills or learn a trade. Within a decade, it was serving 13,700 students at 50 sites statewide.
The charter currently operates Highlands Community Charter School, a classroom-based school, and California Innovative Academy, a nonclassroom-based school in about a dozen locations across the Sacramento region.
The charter school has been the subject of a state audit, multiple investigations and critical news reports since shortly after it opened. The audit found former school leaders had improperly collected $180 million in public funding and violated several education rules.
The charter school began looking for a new home after the Twin Rivers Unified school board revoked its charter in January. In May, the Sacramento County Office of Education reversed that Twin Rivers Unified decision.
Despite that, the charter school’s new leadership decided to look for a new home, citing a strained relationship with Twin Rivers Unified.
“We are looking for a new partner to work with proactively, positively, to learn and work together,” Raymond said. “That relationship with Twin Rivers is just no longer there.”
Highlands Community Charter plans to appeal the Yuba City denial of its charter to the Sutter County Office of Education next week, Raymond said. Its board could deny the appeal or take over authorization of the charter itself.
Because approval of the new petition could take 90 days, both Highlands Community Charter and the California Innovative Academy will begin the school year on Aug. 10 under the oversight of Twin Rivers Unified.
If the petition is later approved by the Sutter County Office of Education, it would allow the Sacramento-area school sites to remain open. They would also become California Learning Academy schools.
The Sutter County Office of Education currently authorizes four charter schools — Feather River Academy, Aero Stem, Sutter Peak Charter Academy and Twin Rivers Charter School.
Highlands Community Charter leaders have met with residents, educators, workforce partners and civic leaders over the past several weeks, and have found strong interest in their school, Raymond said. There are also several prospects for new school sites, he said.
A move to Sutter County will allow the school to expand access to tuition-free diploma pathways, career training, multilingual support and workforce-connected education, Raymond said.
The move would also allow the school to continue to serve students, many who have moved to Sutter County seeking jobs and affordable places to live, Raymond said.
“So, we’re in some ways following our students and meeting an unmet demand in the community,” Raymond said.
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