state audit<\/a> found the school had improperly collected $180 million in public funding and violated multiple education rules.<\/p>\nTwin Rivers Unified staff cited many of the same problems revealed in the audit for the decision to revoke the school\u2019s charters.<\/p>\n
The hundreds of students, staff and community activists, many who arrived via bus to pack Tuesday night\u2019s Sacramento County Board of Education meeting, cheered with jubilation following the board\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nearly 300 supporters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan \u201cIt\u2019s never too late,\u201d filled multiple rooms at the venue. About 40 of them shared stories of hardship improved by instruction from caring teachers, many explaining that the school helped them to learn to speak English and earn a high school diploma. Some expressed fear that the school\u2019s closure would mean the end of their education.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get my diploma so I can put it on the wall,\u201d said Sonya Bonnett, a Sacramento mother of four as she shook with emotion. \u201cI\u2019m 68 years old. It\u2019s time for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charter school network, which serves adult students in its two schools \u2014 California Innovative Career Academy and Horizon Community Charter \u2014 has become both a lifeline for vulnerable students and a symbol of California\u2019s charter oversight failures.<\/p>\n
A difficult decision<\/p>\n
The county school board\u2019s decision wasn\u2019t an easy one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lawyers explained that the board was only to consider whether the evidence in the record supported the district\u2019s decision to revoke the schools\u2019 charters. Board members struggled with conflicting testimony from the district and the charter. In the end, they could not agree.<\/p>\n
The motion to reverse the revocation of each of the charters passed on a 4-3 vote after a four-hour hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis vote gives our students and staff the opportunity to continue the important work of rebuilding this institution and delivering on our mission,\u201d Executive Director Jonathan Raymond said in a statement. \u201cOur students deserve stability, support and the opportunity to complete their education. We remain fully committed to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Twin Rivers weighing its options<\/p>\n
The adult charter school will now return to the oversight of Twin Rivers Unified. The district can appeal the county board\u2019s decision to the California State Board of Education.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, no decision has been made about whether to pursue an appeal,\u201d said Zenobia Gerald, district spokeswoman, via email. \u201cWe\u2019ll be discussing next steps with our Board of Trustees.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district did not make a school administrator or board member available for an interview with EdSource.<\/p>\n
Twin Rivers Unified, which earned $12.9 million in oversight and facility fees from the charter school between 2019-20 and 2023-24, was criticized in the audit \u2014 along with the County Office of Education and the California Department of Education \u2014 for not providing adequate oversight to the charter school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even before the audit, Highlands Community Charter had been the subject of investigations and media scrutiny. County school board trustee Heather Davis questioned why the district took so long to take action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is Twin Rivers so passionate now, when it was going on for a long time,\u201d she said Tuesday night. \u201cWhere were they?\u201d<\/p>\n
Raymond takes the helm<\/p>\n
Raymond, Sacramento City Unified\u2019s former superintendent, has spent the last 10 months trying to rebuild trust in the charter school. He took its reins in July after the audit became public. He immediately asked the charter school\u2019s board members to step down.<\/p>\n
Raymond told EdSource Wednesday that he took the job because the mission of the charter school inspired him. He also saw an opportunity to return to Sacramento and to reestablish old relationships to help the public regain trust in the charter.<\/p>\n
Since then, Highlands leaders have revised academic, operational and fiscal policies to bring them into compliance with state law and their charter, according to Raymond. They have hired new school leaders and impaneled three new board members.<\/p>\n
Raymond acknowledges that the charter\u2019s former leadership were not good stewards of public funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, that was on someone else\u2019s watch,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be on my watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving to Yuba City?<\/p>\n
Despite the victory, the work isn\u2019t over. Raymond is looking for a new authorizer \u2014 setting his sights on Yuba City Unified in Sutter County.<\/p>\n
Raymond has filed a petition with the district, spoken with its leadership and is hopeful that an agreement will be in place by September. The school would operate in both Sutter and Sacramento counties, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tight timeline, but it\u2019s doable, and we\u2019re excited about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sutter County officials approached the charter about bringing their career, technical and adult education programs to their county.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve realized that a lot of the population we serve \u2014 immigrants and refugees \u2014 are now moving up to Sutter County because it\u2019s more affordable than Sacramento County,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cAnd there are also jobs up in Sutter County.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school, which was forced to close most of its sites and put students on waiting lists after the audit, will expand again, Raymond said, noting that enrollment has grown by 800 students since January.<\/p>\n
No matter where the school lands, Raymond says he has three goals for the near term \u2014 build trust and restore integrity; raise operational, professional and academic standards; and make decisions in the best interest of the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I said to the board,\u201d Raymond said, \u201cmy promise was we would become a school that this community and county and our state could be really proud of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonathan Raymond has been named the new executive director of Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools in Sacramento.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-327133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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