Loopholes & Violations
Much of the concern over the loophole that allows a site-based
charter school to locate outside of the geographic area of its
authorizing district relates to oversight: How can a district
provide adequate oversight if the school isn’t located in its
own backyard?
This arrangement, though, doesn’t necessarily mean insuf-
ficient oversight. Take John Adams Academy in Roseville, which
was founded in 2011 when the Loomis Union School District was
led by former Superintendent Paul Johnson. (John Adams has
since opened a Lincoln school authorized by Western Placer
Unified School District and its El Dorado Hills branch by El Dora-
do County Office of Education.)
In February, the Loomis school board issued a notice of vio-
lation to JAA-Roseville for failing to meet student outcomes in
English language arts and math, as determined by California As-
sessment of Student Performance and Progress test scores, and
for allegedly misallocating $613,897 with no evidence to support
these funds “were actually spent on the intended student pop-
ulations, and not on other unrelated projects,” according to the
report. The school has until Aug. 7 to remedy or refute the find-
ings, or risk having its charter revoked.
Loomis Superintendent Gordon Medd says his district
uses an annual checklist from the state’s Fiscal Crisis and
Management Assistance Team to ensure oversight. He says it
was through the FCMAT process that the notice of violation to
JAA-Roseville was issued.
John Adams Academy’s Director of Outreach Norman Gon-
zales said in a statement, “While we disagree with these allega-
[officials with the district] just don’t want to see another
charter school come in, and will stop a grassroots movement
to create change and help students in their community,”
Austin says.
Sun says her school has a solid partnership with its au-
thorizer, the Natomas Unified School District. “We stayed
away from a lot of the contention you hear about, and I think
it’s because when we started, this school district wasn’t even
a unified school district — it was a small elementary district,”
she says. “Our charter school grew up with the school dis-
trict.” Sun, who also serves on the State Board of Education,
supports allowing for alternative authorizers.
Petersen, of Gateway Community Charters, suggests
large nonprofits, universities and city councils as authoriz-
ers. “The reason that’s of interest is they aren’t involved in
the local politics, per se,” she says. “One of the oversimplifi-
cations that I sometimes use is it’s as if the district is Burger
King and I’m McDonald’s, and I have to go ask Burger King
to exist. It sets up a very interesting power differential that
tions, we are already working collaboratively with the district and
remain confident the notice will be fully resolved.” In terms of its
spending, JAA-Roseville provided the district with “clarifying in-
formation demonstrating how the school tracks expenditures of
these funds in accordance with the law,” and implemented the
district’s recommendations regarding how to calculate and track
grant fund expenditures.
The student-outcome piece is more complicated. Accord-
ing to Gonzales, the Roseville campus experienced significant
enrollment growth during the years in question (for example,
a 40 percent increase in 2015-16). “Many of the newly enrolled
students had not thrived in their previous school settings, and
were taking the CAASPP exam for the first time,” Gonzales
says. “These students’ initial CAASPP scores were not as high
as their classmates who had the benefit of attending JAA-Rose-
ville for a number of years.” He says internal assessments show
students’ scores and proficiency levels improve the longer they
attend JAA.
It terms of JAA-Roseville being authorized in Loomis but
located in Roseville, Gonzales points to an initial parent infor-
mation night held at the Blue Goose Event Center in Loomis —
which over 1,000 people attended, he says. The founders Dean
and Linda Forman submitted a charter for a K-12 model to the
Loomis district. But after receiving some 500 intent-to-enroll
forms, they realized there weren’t any facilities that could ac-
commodate their program, so they found a location in Roseville
instead, he says.
~ Sena Christian
makes no sense.” Then, she says, the dilemma becomes: Who
actually wants this responsibility?
San Juan Unified School District Superintendent Kent
Kern, along with other officials from traditional public
schools, already questions the ability of the State to ade-
quately vet charter petitions — let alone the other entities
that might take over authorization from the districts. There
are doubts either entity, hypothetical or not, has the relevant
expertise in regulations, instruction, finance and operations
to provide oversight. “I believe this could cause bigger prob-
lems,” Kern says, “as I am not sure these organizations have
the people or appropriate process in place to complete a thor-
ough review of charter applications.”
Kern references a charter application from Paramount
Collegiate Academy that San Juan Unified denied in 2014.
The operator appealed to the Sacramento County Office of
Education, which also denied the application, but the State
Board of Education ultimately approved it, and the school
opened for the 2015-16 school year. In February 2018, parents
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