...and I thought opening the charter school was hard work....
After the dreaming, petitioning, start up and opening of our little charter school, we were humbled and amazed at our success. Our oversight agency (Chino Valley Unified School District) made quick work for us (and lots of it) with their audits, reviews and demands, and we set out to meet and exceed every call. We passed our fiscal audit with flying colors (100% clean). We hit a 957 on the 1,000 point Academic Performance Index, and we went to work, each and every day, making school fun for the 1,076 kids who CHOOSE to come to our little charter school.
I can share story after story from parents who share that their kids now love coming to school...that their kid "went up 86 points in math on his API score on the state standardized test" (in the first year of attending...how our teachers are committed above and beyond what they have ever experienced. None of this was enough to merit a charter renewal for our local district. After all, with so many public agencies these days, it isn't about the results, it is about the process....
Our team has spent the past four months living the hell of charter renewal. Writing, editing, rewriting, negotiating, and then doing it again. Just when the document was perfect, then came the Memoradums of Understanding (MOUs) or ammendments that were the arm twisting and squeezing for blood by the district that the media and public didn't know about. The school board came out looking like heros and my tolerance for bullshit reached a new level. Under the guise of "oversight" the school district did a big power grab. They want more money (doubled their encroachment), they want to limit our ability to grow (because what works just can't be in their eyes), but we can never say they are the reason we can't meet the demand. They wanted us to follow their district rules for internal disputes, which is riduculous because as a charter school we are NOT a district school, therefore do not need to follow 99% of Ed Code. They just could not wrap their heads around that. They made unbelievable demands, but thankfully, our Executive Director went to battle for us and kept our program intact.
Oh well, it's done. Five more years.
