[KHTS] Albert Einstein Academy for the Letters, Arts and Sciences officials hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for their elementary school at a former Pinecrest school site in Santa Clarita this week.
Einstein Academy’s efforts to open an elementary school have managed to divide Santa Clarita Valley legislators, earn the ire of education officials in several counties and even prompt several lawsuits from school districts.
But those in support of the school remain resolute and undeterred.
The school’s supporters called the opening a “victory for parents.” Education officials in three counties say AEALAS is ignoring the law, which is why the school has been hit with such opposition.
“This is a victory for parents in this community who’ve been wanting this for many years,” said Jeffrey Shapiro, executive director for Einstein Academy, of the elementary school’s opening. “Everybody involved with Einstein does this because of our commitment and belief in the community and to education.”
However, by obtaining permission to operate from outside of the districts that denied their requests to operate, San Diego, Ventura and Los Angeles county officials have accused the school of ignoring their respective district’s concerns and usurping local control.
AEALAS officials, as well as Acton-Agua Dulce officials, have consistently claimed their actions are legal, even while legislators move to change what the school’s opponents are calling a loophole, with the passage of SB 1263.
“This particular charter school circumvented the law entirely by going to a neighboring school district,” said Erin Evans, a legislative consultant hired to advocate for SB 1263, a bill authored by state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Calabasas, who represents portions of the Santa Clarita Valley.
“It’s sort of like if the LAPD policed the streets of Santa Clarita,” Evans said of the Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District approval of the Pinecrest site. “The way we see it, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
While the move is legal under the state’s Education Code, Newhall School District officials said attempts by the cash-strapped AADUSD to site charter schools outside its own boundaries nullifies its constitutionally granted right to oversee public education within its boundaries.
Education officials’ statewide efforts to address their concerns legislatively with SB 1263 have split the views of the Santa Clarita Valley’s representatives, with state Sen. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, and Assemblyman Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, expressing opposition to Pavley’s bill in recent interviews.
Santa Clarita Valley education officials testified in front of the Assembly Education Committee that county and state agencies both claimed to have no authority to intervene on behalf of the school districts.
County education officials ultimately did put several of AADUSD’s charter school approvals on hold, but the actions had to do with concerns about the school district’s finances.
Wilk has met with both sides repeatedly to discuss the issues related to SB 1263, he said.
While he considers the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified District a “bad actor” for its proliferation of charter school approvals outside of its boundaries, he saw the legislative solution proposed as a targeting of the elementary school, which he didn’t think was right.
“I’m the first to tell you that there’s a problem in the way (AADUSD) has been operating,” Wilk said, “but you don’t create legislation that one hurts school districts across the state and targets one specific school.”
Both Wilk and Knight suggested an amendment to state’s Education Code allowing county governance to provide oversight of charter schools with a mechanism to enforce the current law.
As the law stands now, Einstein officials were able to seek approval from the Los Angeles County Office of Education after the Saugus Union School District twice denied petitions. However, when it appeared as though LACOE also might deny Einstein’s petition over program concerns, the school went to AADUSD, which granted the approval that led to the Einstein elementary at the old Pinecrest location.
“What we have here is a charter school that was denied because it didn’t have a proper program in place to serve English learners and special needs students,” Evans said, adding the bill should be voted on the Assembly floor by the end of next week.
If the bill is successful there, it could head back to the Senate for a concurrence vote, and with a passing vote, then sent to the governor’s desk.
The bill, if signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, could prevent Einstein Academy from operating at a site outside of the Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District, Evans said.
The bill states a charter school could continue to operate a facility outside the boundaries of the chartering school district if both of the following apply: The charter school was authorized before April 1, 2013; and the charter school operated that facility with pupils enrolled and attending before Sept. 15.
Einstein Academy received conditional approval from AADUSD in May 2013.
AEA’s elementary school plan faced rejection from three districts before going to AADUSD, citing various concerns, and denied permission for its previous location in Valencia based on the concerns of Santa Clarita city planners.
After the Los Angeles Unified, Newhall and Saugus Union school districts (twice) turned down petitions to open a charter school, Einstein Academy sought approval from Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District to open a location outside that district’s physical boundaries.
But the denials mattered little to Terry Collier, a parent with two children at the school’s new Pinecrest site.
The new site is more convenient, she said, and allows the school’s parents to becomes much more involved in school activities because of its proximity.
Collier also saw the four-year ordeal of Einstein officials leading up to the opening of the new site on Orchard Village Road as a lesson in perseverance for the school’s students.
“The fact is that we’re here — ‘Are they happy? Are they learning?’” she asked rhetorically, explaining what mattered to her as a parent. “And the answer is yes and yes. It’s unfortunate that these politics that are going on.”
Shapiro declined to comment on the lawsuits, saying the school’s “focus right now is on the beginning of the school year and getting our students into school and educating them,” he said.
Einstein Academy is currently in the various stages of development of eight sites, he said, and some of those are being challenged by lawsuits brought forth by local school districts.
“We’re thrilled that we’re able to bring quality programs to communities that want it,” Shapiro said, “including in Santa Clarita.”
Einstein Academy officials are hosting a meeting for parents, days after reports of asbestos found at the elementary school’s Valencia site on Orchard Village Road circulated online, according to a letter sent out from school officials obtained by KHTS AM-1220. The meeting is for parents of Albert Einstein Academy for…
[KHTS] - Albert Einstein Academy of Letters, Arts and Sciences refused an offer of space by the Saugus Union School District Monday, which would have allowed the charter school to co-locate at Rio Vista Elementary School. AEA requested the district to provide them space on Nov. 1, under Proposition 39. The California law, passed…
[KHTS] - Santa Clarita planning commissioners voted 5-0 to deny Einstein Academy’s plan for a Valencia school site at a hearing Tuesday. The move came after support from Einstein parents, and opposition from Hart district and Castaic Union school officials. “We are continuing conversations with city staff and committed to…
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This article doesn’t mention the impact that the opening of this illegal charter school has had on the surrounding neighborhood. The vast majority of these children are coming from outside the immediate area and thus are being dropped off and picked up. No buses, no walking, no bikes. That has led to a traffic nightmare for us in the area, with AEA traffic merging with that of nearby Meadows Elementary traffic two blocks away at pick up and drop off times. It clearly is only a matter of time before there is an accident on Orchard Village Rd, especially at the Mill Valley/Orchard Village Rd intersection. This isn’t even to mention the doubling of vehicle exhaust in the area twice a day. I really can’t believe this was school was allowed to open with no traffic plan in place. Actually I can: nothing surprises me about the Einstein people. They do what they want with zero regard for the communities in which they operate.
So, when Pinecrest school was open, there was no vehicle exhaust in the area twice a day? There was no traffic nightmares in the area?
It seems to me that the problem you are not addressing is that the Academy gives the students excellent teaching and that takes students away from the public schools where less students equals less money to the schools.
If my children were of elementary school age, they’d be at the Academy in two seconds flat.
My daughter goes to Albert Einstein, and loving it. The value of education she’s getting clearly outweighs the traditional school… and it’s only been the first week! How great is that! From my conversations with other parents, the kids love to go to school. I haven’t heard much of that anywhere else. If the school districts would like to win back the students and parents, then they should treat the academy as healthy competition, and make improvements… instead of acting like bullies trying to close down a perfectly good school.
I like that AEA fails to cater to the “english learners” and “special needs” children. Parents of those broken kids can take those unfortunate souls to some kind of camp where they can learn to sew or melt lead for car batteries or something useful for society, instead of wasting all the resources for the normal children.
As far as the traffic plan goes, maybe those “special” kids could be taught how to direct traffic at that other school and be put to work right away — see problem solved.
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Saugus High School’s inaugural varsity color guard team will compete at the WGI Color Guard World Championships in Dayton, Ohio, Thursday thru Saturday, April 3-5.
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4 Comments
This article doesn’t mention the impact that the opening of this illegal charter school has had on the surrounding neighborhood. The vast majority of these children are coming from outside the immediate area and thus are being dropped off and picked up. No buses, no walking, no bikes. That has led to a traffic nightmare for us in the area, with AEA traffic merging with that of nearby Meadows Elementary traffic two blocks away at pick up and drop off times. It clearly is only a matter of time before there is an accident on Orchard Village Rd, especially at the Mill Valley/Orchard Village Rd intersection. This isn’t even to mention the doubling of vehicle exhaust in the area twice a day. I really can’t believe this was school was allowed to open with no traffic plan in place. Actually I can: nothing surprises me about the Einstein people. They do what they want with zero regard for the communities in which they operate.
So, when Pinecrest school was open, there was no vehicle exhaust in the area twice a day? There was no traffic nightmares in the area?
It seems to me that the problem you are not addressing is that the Academy gives the students excellent teaching and that takes students away from the public schools where less students equals less money to the schools.
If my children were of elementary school age, they’d be at the Academy in two seconds flat.
My daughter goes to Albert Einstein, and loving it. The value of education she’s getting clearly outweighs the traditional school… and it’s only been the first week! How great is that! From my conversations with other parents, the kids love to go to school. I haven’t heard much of that anywhere else. If the school districts would like to win back the students and parents, then they should treat the academy as healthy competition, and make improvements… instead of acting like bullies trying to close down a perfectly good school.
So what,
I like that AEA fails to cater to the “english learners” and “special needs” children. Parents of those broken kids can take those unfortunate souls to some kind of camp where they can learn to sew or melt lead for car batteries or something useful for society, instead of wasting all the resources for the normal children.
As far as the traffic plan goes, maybe those “special” kids could be taught how to direct traffic at that other school and be put to work right away — see problem solved.