Education is vital in the cultivation of our children’s minds and, if done correctly, will prepare them for the 21st century world. To ensure the success of its students in an interconnected world economy, the Acton–Agua Dulce Unified School District has been unafraid to embrace expanded educational opportunities for its students, even when those opportunities come in the form of public charter schools.

Here in our community, parents asked our Board of Trustees to raise the bar within the community and create new choices for parents and their children by embracing charter schools. AADUSD has listened to the community and responded by thoroughly but fairly reviewing any charter school petitions it receives. As a result, parents have more educational options than ever before, but it has attracted legal challenges from other school districts that choose to limit parents’ choices. However, AADUSD remains committed to honoring the spirit and intent of the Charter Schools Act.

The Charter Schools Act encourages school districts to approve charter schools.

The Charter Schools Act (CSA) of 1992 provides for the establishment of charter schools. In passing the CSA, the Legislature stated that it intended to provide opportunities to establish public schools that operate independently from the existing school district structure. The Legislature determined that the increased choices created by charter schools could accomplish multiple goals, including:

* improving student learning,

* increasing learning opportunities for all students,

* encouraging the use of innovative teaching methods,

* allowing teachers and parents to take greater responsibility for the learning programs at their schools,

* providing parents and students with more choices of educational programs, and

* creating vigorous competition within the public school system to stimulate continual improvements in all public schools.

The Legislature has gone to great lengths to encourage the creation of public charter schools. The CSA explicitly tells school districts that they should be guided by the Legislature’s intent that public charter schools “should become an integral part of the California educational system and that the establishment of charter schools should be encouraged.” The CSA also tells school districts that they must approve a charter petition if it is consistent with sound educational practice, and it only allows a school district to deny a charter petition for five specific reasons.

In certain situations, a charter school may open one site outside of its authorizing district’s boundaries.

To further encourage the creation of public charter schools, The Charter Schools Act (CSA) allows a charter school to establish one site outside the boundaries of the authorizing school district if the charter school is unable to locate a single site within the authorizing district’s boundaries that is capable of housing the entire program. Even then, prior notice is given to the school district in which the facility will be located, the local county superintendent of schools, and the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction.

If a quality charter petition proposes to establish one site outside of AADUSD’s boundaries because the charter cannot locate a single suitable site within AADUSD’s boundaries, the CSA does not allow AADUSD to deny the petition for that reason.

Take, for example, Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences (AEALAS). AEALAS operates multiple high-performing public charter schools, including the “SCV” charter. Hundreds of families have chosen to enroll their children at SCV, and hundreds more are on the waiting list. AEALAS SCV has proven to be so popular its entire program cannot fit on a single campus within AADUSD’s boundaries. For that reason, SCV operates a campus in Agua Dulce and opened a new campus in Santa Clarita this school year. In its second year of operations, SCV is off to a remarkable start obtaining praise from parents, students, teachers and community leaders.

Some school districts actively work to shut down successful charter schools.

AADUSD has always been open to working with its neighboring school districts to find a reasonable solution which would create a favorable outcome for students. Unfortunately, other nearby school districts are working hard (and spending hundreds of thousands of local tax payer’s dollars) to close successful public charter schools like AEALAS SCV mid-school year and invalidate the choices hundreds of parents have made for their children.

Our neighboring school districts even went so far as to lobby the Legislature to change the current law that allows charter schools to be authorized outside of a district’s boundaries in certain circumstances. Last year, Senate Bill 1263, authored by State Senator Fran Pavley, sought to remove this narrow exception and effectively deny parents and students the opportunity to establish or attend a seat- based public charter school if they find themselves in a district with extremely limited space like AADUSD. Governor Brown vetoed this legislation due to its punitive grandfathering clause aimed squarely at closing SCV and other currently operating charter schools.

Newhall School District sued to close the AEALAS-SCV charter school mid-year, but it continues to operate.

Members of the local community may already be aware that the Newhall School District has sued AADUSD and the AEALAS SCV charter school. Newhall has sought to invalidate and close the AEALAS SCV charter mid-school year or to force AADUSD to revoke the SCV charter because AEALAS SCV operates a campus in Santa Clarita. Newhall has focused on AEALAS SCV’s operation of a site in Santa Clarita, arguing that SCV cannot operate in Santa Clarita because AEALAS SCV can locate its entire program at a single site somewhere within AADUSD’s boundaries.

On October 9, 2014, Judge James C. Chalfant of the Los Angeles Superior Court considered Newhall’s arguments. When a charter petition proposes to locate a single site outside of the authorizing district’s boundaries, the plain text of the CSA does not require a school district to make an explicit finding that the charter petition can properly operate an out-of-district site. However, Judge Chalfant concluded that findings are necessary in case, as happened here, someone challenges the charter approval. Otherwise, the courts do not have a record which can be analyzed for compliance with the CSA.

Judge Chalfant believed there was substantial evidence that SCV could not locate at a single site within AADUSD’s boundaries, but no findings were made on the issue when AADUSD approved the SCV charter in 2013. Judge Chalfant ruled that the SCV charter school could remain open while AADUSD and AEALAS were given an opportunity to consider and approve or deny a new charter petition to replace SCV. AADUSD could only approve the new petition if AADUSD explicitly concluded that it could properly locate outside AADUSD’s boundaries under the CSA.

AEALAS submitted a new charter petition (named “Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics” or “STEAM”) to replace AEALAS SCV. AADUSD used its extensive vetting process based on the CSA and the California State Board of Education’s charter review regulations. AADUSD gathered factual evidence and thoroughly evaluated the petition as it has done for every charter petition submitted to the District since the 2013/2014 school year. AADUSD’s Office of School Choice went above and beyond the Judge’s order and evaluated every aspect of the new charter petition, including whether there was any evidence to support denying the petition under any of the five acceptable reasons for denial.

Two public hearings were held on December 4, 2014, and January 8, 2015, to provided ample opportunity for Newhall, AEALAS, and interested community members to address the Board of Trustees. After over four hours of public comment and Board debate, the Board approved the new STEAM petition by a vote of 4 to 1.

When Judge Chalfant gave AADUSD and AEALAS an opportunity to replace the SCV petition, he scheduled a hearing for February 5, 2015, to review the outcome and make a final ruling on Newhall’s lawsuit and SCV’s status pending the launch of its replacement. The parties appeared before Judge Chalfant as planned, but the Judge did not resolve the case. Instead, the entire case was placed on hold because Newhall has initiated an appeal of Judge Chalfant’s October 9 order.

Specifically, Newhall hopes to convince the Court of Appeals that Judge Chalfant was required to shutdown SCV (including the Agua Dulce campus) on October 9. That would have left hundreds of parents and students without a school they love and dozens of educators without jobs in the middle of the school year even though, as Judge Chalfant observed, there was substantial evidence that SCV could not fit at a single suitable site within AADUSD’s boundaries.

With Newhall’s lawsuit on hold, SCV is allowed to continue to operate. STEAM is unaffected by any of this and AEALAS has stated they still intend to open STEAM to replace SCV before the 2015/2016 school year starts.

AADUSD is above all focused on students.

In the future, when charter school petitioners submit petitions to AADUSD, the District will continue to rigorously review the petitions. Not all petitions can meet AADUSD’s standards and satisfy the CSA’s requirements. But when AADUSD is presented with a high-quality petition, the District will continue to work with petitioners to provide expanded educational opportunities to parents and students. This is consistent with the intent and goals of the CSA, and with AADUSD’s primary objective – to provide students with the high quality education they deserve.

Students are at the center of everything AADUSD does, including the District’s review of charter petitions. AADUSD’s approval of exceptional charter schools may lead to difficulties and challenges like Newhall’s lawsuit, but the District is ready and willing to move forward when it is in the best interest of students because that is what’s right and fair.

Dr. Brent Woodard is superintendent of the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District.