However, on March 6, 2008, a Thursday in the evening there will be a public hearing at the County Board of Education in Woodland where Valley Oak’s Charter petition appeal will be heard.
There are more hurdles. If the County chooses to accept the charter petition, the teacher salary schedule is considerably lower than at DJUSD. Their health benefits program is more limited. How this impacts the charter and its ability to attract teachers is unclear at this time.
According to the County Board of Education’s website, the board decision must be made no later than April 4, 2008.
The public has a number of different means by which to comment. One of course would be to show up at the meeting on March 6, 2008.
However, the public may also leave a voicemail message of up to five minutes in length at: (530) 668-3751.
They may also email the county at: vocscomments@ycoe.org
Valley Oak supporters are urging the public to send an email or a voice message to one of those two sources.
Valley Oak Teacher and one of the key organizers Bill Storm told the Vanguard:
“We need people to check our website and offer their support as is suggested there. I’m sure the district will have plenty to say against us, as will those people in Davis who want us dead and the neighborhood left unserved. Community voices will be important here.”
Sarah Fonte, a teacher at Cesar Chavez, in a letter to the Davis Enterprise stressed that the Charter School is a free public school that is nevertheless unique.
“As a strong proponent of equitable public education for all students, I am glad to know that the proposed charter school is, in fact, a free public school. Like all schools in Davis, state academic standards will be taught and student academic performance will be measured through the same testing structures currently used in California’s other public schools.
What makes this school unique, however, is that a board of teachers, community members and parents will work together to determine how these standards should be presented to best suit the needs of all of the school’s students.”
She adds that while the Charter School primarily intends to serve the neighborhood students and families, she believes “students who live in other areas in and around Davis will be able to take advantage of the school’s programs as well.”
“This charter school effort is not a privatization scheme, and in no way is it an effort to undermine other great programs present in the Davis school district. Instead, the goal of this school is to support the low-income and culturally diverse students, among others, who are effectively being denied equal educational opportunity because of the Board of Education’s decision to close their highly successful neighborhood school.”
Finally a letter from Henry Anker, a student at Holmes Junior High wrote an eloquent letter to the editor that was published on Valentine’s Day.
“I am a student at Holmes Junior High, and Valley Oak Elementary School is part of my community. The issue of whether Valley Oak should become a charter school is not financial. It is social. The charter was turned down, but it is not clear why. It would be funded by the state of California and not Yolo County or Davis.
I went to a meeting at Valley Oak on Feb. 2. One person at the meeting who is a Valley Oak teacher and who lives in the neighborhood said, ‘Valley Oak is more than a school.’ What she meant by that was Valley Oak is a unique school that cannot be replicated anywhere else. It is unique because of where it is located, who it serves and how it educates.
When I was at the meeting, I could see why Valley Oak is unique. There were children, adults and old people; Spanish and English speakers. One teacher said there were 23 languages spoken at Valley Oak. There were always at least two people on stage explaining things – one in Spanish and the other in English.
They explained that if the school becomes a charter, it would be a cooperative. A cooperative empowers people to learn by participating. I learned a lot at that meeting – it was an example of the cooperative spirit that makes Valley Oak unique.
One person in the audience, Mariko Yamada, said her children went to Valley Oak once. She told everyone what a great school Valley Oak is, and she said, ‘Most of the battles you will fight in your life you will lose, but if you don’t fight – then we lose them all.'”
The message is clear. Members of the Valley Oak community want the public to know that this fight is not over. That the community is not giving up. That they will continue to fight and take this to the county. That if they should not prevail at the county-level they are going to the state.
There has been too much energy spent on keeping the hope of Valley Oak alive to give up now. Valley Oak represents a strong education for the children of a community that is often under-served. It means a strongly knit and closely bonded community. And the bottom line is that Valley Oak has succeeded despite all of the obstacles in the past. In this time of budget cuts and cutting of programs it is more important than ever to insure that our most vulnerable students have the best possible education.
—Doug Paul Davis reporting
I do not remember the Board making a decision to reject the Valley Oak Charter? I thought that they voted not to accept “Hammond’s deal” but never formally rejected the original charter(or the result of a second negotiation). If the County approves the appeal, can the DJUSD still go back and approve a VO charter proposal and NOT lose the State funding for these children?
I do not remember the Board making a decision to reject the Valley Oak Charter? I thought that they voted not to accept “Hammond’s deal” but never formally rejected the original charter(or the result of a second negotiation). If the County approves the appeal, can the DJUSD still go back and approve a VO charter proposal and NOT lose the State funding for these children?
I do not remember the Board making a decision to reject the Valley Oak Charter? I thought that they voted not to accept “Hammond’s deal” but never formally rejected the original charter(or the result of a second negotiation). If the County approves the appeal, can the DJUSD still go back and approve a VO charter proposal and NOT lose the State funding for these children?
I do not remember the Board making a decision to reject the Valley Oak Charter? I thought that they voted not to accept “Hammond’s deal” but never formally rejected the original charter(or the result of a second negotiation). If the County approves the appeal, can the DJUSD still go back and approve a VO charter proposal and NOT lose the State funding for these children?
They formally rejected the charter at the next meeting.
They formally rejected the charter at the next meeting.
They formally rejected the charter at the next meeting.
They formally rejected the charter at the next meeting.
As you can see from the items slated to be cut from the school budget, the school district/board are not necessarily making the correct choices. With a charter school, there is parent/teacher input on how school funding is spent. We desperately need to support any attempts to create charter schools, each of which has its own governing body made up of parents and teachers – stakeholders who have every reason to make the school work financially.
It is also possible for a charter school to forge relationships with private business to supplement funding wherever possible and appropriate. There are so many great possibilities to improve the fiscal health of a charter school, with imput from parents and teachers. VO Charter School will be an inspiration for better education that meets the needs of its particular student population. I see no reason why teacher salaries could not be supplemented through grant funding or other creative modalities. VO Charter School has the potential to be the envy of the Davis School District!
As you can see from the items slated to be cut from the school budget, the school district/board are not necessarily making the correct choices. With a charter school, there is parent/teacher input on how school funding is spent. We desperately need to support any attempts to create charter schools, each of which has its own governing body made up of parents and teachers – stakeholders who have every reason to make the school work financially.
It is also possible for a charter school to forge relationships with private business to supplement funding wherever possible and appropriate. There are so many great possibilities to improve the fiscal health of a charter school, with imput from parents and teachers. VO Charter School will be an inspiration for better education that meets the needs of its particular student population. I see no reason why teacher salaries could not be supplemented through grant funding or other creative modalities. VO Charter School has the potential to be the envy of the Davis School District!
As you can see from the items slated to be cut from the school budget, the school district/board are not necessarily making the correct choices. With a charter school, there is parent/teacher input on how school funding is spent. We desperately need to support any attempts to create charter schools, each of which has its own governing body made up of parents and teachers – stakeholders who have every reason to make the school work financially.
It is also possible for a charter school to forge relationships with private business to supplement funding wherever possible and appropriate. There are so many great possibilities to improve the fiscal health of a charter school, with imput from parents and teachers. VO Charter School will be an inspiration for better education that meets the needs of its particular student population. I see no reason why teacher salaries could not be supplemented through grant funding or other creative modalities. VO Charter School has the potential to be the envy of the Davis School District!
As you can see from the items slated to be cut from the school budget, the school district/board are not necessarily making the correct choices. With a charter school, there is parent/teacher input on how school funding is spent. We desperately need to support any attempts to create charter schools, each of which has its own governing body made up of parents and teachers – stakeholders who have every reason to make the school work financially.
It is also possible for a charter school to forge relationships with private business to supplement funding wherever possible and appropriate. There are so many great possibilities to improve the fiscal health of a charter school, with imput from parents and teachers. VO Charter School will be an inspiration for better education that meets the needs of its particular student population. I see no reason why teacher salaries could not be supplemented through grant funding or other creative modalities. VO Charter School has the potential to be the envy of the Davis School District!
I have no children at Valley Oak, but have followed the closure/charter storty with great interest.
From an observer’s point of view: it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision. It has proved to be a large black-eye for the district, considering the methods used by this 7/11. The deed was done, but the school was resurrected in another form as a charter proposal. The district pulled every dirty trick to sabotage the process while claiming an open mind and a willingness to work with the charter group. The school board was never going to pass the charter in any form, but managed to ask for extensions in order to waste the charter proposal’s momentum. The charter was denied in a 5-0 vote on illegal grounds. Negative financial impacts on the district can’t be a reason for voting down the charter.
Still the charter preseveres and is now at the county level. If the county grants the charter, the DJUSD has a now hostile charter in its midst, the district has no influence over the charter’s operations,and the charter will bleed off a minimum of eighty of the district’s students. The charter teachers will be employess of the county and subject to a lower pay scale, making employment there less desirable to the dozen and a half or so current, senior Valley Oak teachers who’ve expressed interest in remaining as teachers. Thus, the DJUSD will have to keep those teachers on its payroll at at a time when the district is desperately trying to reduce its payroll, rather than have them shifted to the charter payroll had the board and district acted in good faith and passed the charter in January.
Is this the kind of leadership we can expect from our school board in these difficult times?
I have no children at Valley Oak, but have followed the closure/charter storty with great interest.
From an observer’s point of view: it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision. It has proved to be a large black-eye for the district, considering the methods used by this 7/11. The deed was done, but the school was resurrected in another form as a charter proposal. The district pulled every dirty trick to sabotage the process while claiming an open mind and a willingness to work with the charter group. The school board was never going to pass the charter in any form, but managed to ask for extensions in order to waste the charter proposal’s momentum. The charter was denied in a 5-0 vote on illegal grounds. Negative financial impacts on the district can’t be a reason for voting down the charter.
Still the charter preseveres and is now at the county level. If the county grants the charter, the DJUSD has a now hostile charter in its midst, the district has no influence over the charter’s operations,and the charter will bleed off a minimum of eighty of the district’s students. The charter teachers will be employess of the county and subject to a lower pay scale, making employment there less desirable to the dozen and a half or so current, senior Valley Oak teachers who’ve expressed interest in remaining as teachers. Thus, the DJUSD will have to keep those teachers on its payroll at at a time when the district is desperately trying to reduce its payroll, rather than have them shifted to the charter payroll had the board and district acted in good faith and passed the charter in January.
Is this the kind of leadership we can expect from our school board in these difficult times?
I have no children at Valley Oak, but have followed the closure/charter storty with great interest.
From an observer’s point of view: it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision. It has proved to be a large black-eye for the district, considering the methods used by this 7/11. The deed was done, but the school was resurrected in another form as a charter proposal. The district pulled every dirty trick to sabotage the process while claiming an open mind and a willingness to work with the charter group. The school board was never going to pass the charter in any form, but managed to ask for extensions in order to waste the charter proposal’s momentum. The charter was denied in a 5-0 vote on illegal grounds. Negative financial impacts on the district can’t be a reason for voting down the charter.
Still the charter preseveres and is now at the county level. If the county grants the charter, the DJUSD has a now hostile charter in its midst, the district has no influence over the charter’s operations,and the charter will bleed off a minimum of eighty of the district’s students. The charter teachers will be employess of the county and subject to a lower pay scale, making employment there less desirable to the dozen and a half or so current, senior Valley Oak teachers who’ve expressed interest in remaining as teachers. Thus, the DJUSD will have to keep those teachers on its payroll at at a time when the district is desperately trying to reduce its payroll, rather than have them shifted to the charter payroll had the board and district acted in good faith and passed the charter in January.
Is this the kind of leadership we can expect from our school board in these difficult times?
I have no children at Valley Oak, but have followed the closure/charter storty with great interest.
From an observer’s point of view: it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision. It has proved to be a large black-eye for the district, considering the methods used by this 7/11. The deed was done, but the school was resurrected in another form as a charter proposal. The district pulled every dirty trick to sabotage the process while claiming an open mind and a willingness to work with the charter group. The school board was never going to pass the charter in any form, but managed to ask for extensions in order to waste the charter proposal’s momentum. The charter was denied in a 5-0 vote on illegal grounds. Negative financial impacts on the district can’t be a reason for voting down the charter.
Still the charter preseveres and is now at the county level. If the county grants the charter, the DJUSD has a now hostile charter in its midst, the district has no influence over the charter’s operations,and the charter will bleed off a minimum of eighty of the district’s students. The charter teachers will be employess of the county and subject to a lower pay scale, making employment there less desirable to the dozen and a half or so current, senior Valley Oak teachers who’ve expressed interest in remaining as teachers. Thus, the DJUSD will have to keep those teachers on its payroll at at a time when the district is desperately trying to reduce its payroll, rather than have them shifted to the charter payroll had the board and district acted in good faith and passed the charter in January.
Is this the kind of leadership we can expect from our school board in these difficult times?
the tragedy in all of this is that the school district effectively made this financial mess for themselves by closing valley oak when it didn’t need to, and mismanaging money in the boom cycle of the economy. now that things are looking ugly for the budget, and they’ve driven valley oak to a charter, it’s going to hurt the district more.
what a mess, and a needless one. davis has more than enough money in the community to make these things work, should it collectively decide that it’s worthwhile. what is so maddening is that the community never really got a chance to weigh in on whether they wanted to keep valley oak open, it was all presented as a fait accomplis by the school board and then more or less ignored in most of the school board and school bond races.
the tragedy in all of this is that the school district effectively made this financial mess for themselves by closing valley oak when it didn’t need to, and mismanaging money in the boom cycle of the economy. now that things are looking ugly for the budget, and they’ve driven valley oak to a charter, it’s going to hurt the district more.
what a mess, and a needless one. davis has more than enough money in the community to make these things work, should it collectively decide that it’s worthwhile. what is so maddening is that the community never really got a chance to weigh in on whether they wanted to keep valley oak open, it was all presented as a fait accomplis by the school board and then more or less ignored in most of the school board and school bond races.
the tragedy in all of this is that the school district effectively made this financial mess for themselves by closing valley oak when it didn’t need to, and mismanaging money in the boom cycle of the economy. now that things are looking ugly for the budget, and they’ve driven valley oak to a charter, it’s going to hurt the district more.
what a mess, and a needless one. davis has more than enough money in the community to make these things work, should it collectively decide that it’s worthwhile. what is so maddening is that the community never really got a chance to weigh in on whether they wanted to keep valley oak open, it was all presented as a fait accomplis by the school board and then more or less ignored in most of the school board and school bond races.
the tragedy in all of this is that the school district effectively made this financial mess for themselves by closing valley oak when it didn’t need to, and mismanaging money in the boom cycle of the economy. now that things are looking ugly for the budget, and they’ve driven valley oak to a charter, it’s going to hurt the district more.
what a mess, and a needless one. davis has more than enough money in the community to make these things work, should it collectively decide that it’s worthwhile. what is so maddening is that the community never really got a chance to weigh in on whether they wanted to keep valley oak open, it was all presented as a fait accomplis by the school board and then more or less ignored in most of the school board and school bond races.
“it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision.”
Why did the black member of the School Board vote to close Valley Oak, while the only member to vote against closure was white?
“it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision.”
Why did the black member of the School Board vote to close Valley Oak, while the only member to vote against closure was white?
“it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision.”
Why did the black member of the School Board vote to close Valley Oak, while the only member to vote against closure was white?
“it appears to me that the district deliberately sought to close Valley Oak by appointing an all white, affluent BUSSTF, under-estimating the opposition to such a decision.”
Why did the black member of the School Board vote to close Valley Oak, while the only member to vote against closure was white?
There is nothing good that is going to come for the direction that this discussion is quickly moving.
There is nothing good that is going to come for the direction that this discussion is quickly moving.