Rebuffed in their initial effort to bring their unconventional charter school to Culver City two years ago, the founders of Innovatory School for Professional Youth are hoping that the second time will be the charm.
Representatives of the charter organization presented their case again at the Nov. 13 meeting of the Culver City Unified School District Board of Education during a public hearing that allowed them to answer questions, field queries from the board and get a sense of what the public thinks of the charter school and what it can offer Culver City.
The charter caters to at risk youth and students who would like to seek employment opportunities after high school, including in the entertainment industry.
Jessica London Jacobs, one of the charter’s co-founders, told the News days before the meeting she was confident that her organization had answered all of the doubts that members of the Culver City school board expressed about the charter’s first petition in 2010, which the board denied.
“After we were denied the first time, we heard (the school board) was concerned about the potential financial impact on them,” she said. “So we’ve tried to address that in our petition this time.”
The charter’s co-founder said during their first attempt to get authorization she felt that the district “did not communicate with us” but she believes the revamped petition should smooth over any potential ill will.
“We have a really good idea for that are not well served,” she asserted.
The charter will not need much room, according to London Jacobs because most of the students would take classes online. “We would probably just need an office, maybe in downtown Culver City,” said London Jacobs, a Mar Vista resident.
Charter schools have exploded across California over the last several years. Many parents view them as an alternative to traditional schools and pro-charter parent organizations have been instrumental in making California home to the largest number of charters in recent memory other than New York.
Opponents of charters say they take students away from traditional schools and do not serve the same number of English as a second language, immigrant or special needs students.
Steven Gourley, a former CCUSD president as well as an ex-Culver City mayor, says ISPY’s budget should be one of the school district’s primary areas of concentration. “Is their budget reasonable? In other words, can they provide the education they promise (and pay their bills) for the amount they budget?” he asked. “Do they have they made a realistic estimate of the money they will receive?”
Gourley also thinks who will comprise the charter’s teachers and administration are important questions.
Board member Patricia Siever did not see a great deal of difference between the first presentation and the most recent. “I heard nothing that I had not heard before,” Siever told the News after the public hearing had concluded.
Her board colleague Laura Chardiet echoed Siever. “They didn’t say anything that they didn’t say the first time,” she said.
Chardiet pointed out there were virtually no community members who attend the meeting to support the charter. “I think that says a lot,” she added.
London Jacobs said her experience to date with CCUSD Superintendent David La Rose is distinctly different from her encounters with Patricia Jaffe, LaRose’s predecessor. She said the district rarely talked with her and ISPY’s co-founder Florina Rodov.
“I have found him to be inspirational and forward thinking,” she said. “His ideas on educational opportunities are in line with ours.”
That was not the case with Jaffe, according to London Jacobs.
Unlike some past and current board members, Jaffe did not think any charter would take students away from the local schools.
“I don’t see why any parent in Culver City would want to send their child to a charter when we have quality public schools here,” the former superintendent said in an April 25 interview last year.
London Jacobs said “consideration of the level of support among parents and teachers” was one of the elements included the last petition. But according to her, after expressing interest in learning about the charter, teachers later notified her that the district had ordered them not to talk to ISPY representatives.
“How in the world can you gauge the level of interest of supporting us when we can’t contact them?” she asked.
London Jacobs said some of the teachers told her that they “didn’t want to get in trouble” with the school district. The charter co-founder also claimed one educator indicated that teachers had been threatened with losing their employment if they met with representatives of the charter school.
Most charter schools are not unionized, Green Dot Public Schools being one of the larger organizations know locally where its educators do belong to a union.
“I’m absolutely for unions,” said London Jacobs, whose father negotiated the first paid vacation for American workers for the Electrical Workers Union in St. Louis, Mo. “I’m a big union supporter.
“I told (Culver City Federated Teachers President David Mileke) that we could even join his union if they wanted.”
President of the Association of Classified Employees- Culver City Debbie Hamme said she has not spoken with the ISPY co-founders.
“But it is gratifying to hear that they are union supporters and wouldn’t have an issue with her employees joining our two unions,” she said. “I did see the initial presentation they made to the board, but I would need to know more.”
Mielke said his primary concern was losing students to a charter school, which ISPY says will not happen.
“We can’t compete with Culver City Middle School or the high school and we don’t want to,” said London Jacobs.
Mielke’s other concerns include the belief that charter schools take funds away from public schools and that Culver City already serves the student population that ISPY says they would like to help.
“We know what we’re doing here with at risk kids,” said the teachers union president, who taught for 19 years at Culver Park High School, the city continuation school. “It’s surprising to me when people come from the outside and assume that they know how to do something that we don’t.”
Chardiet said she was struck by what she perceived to be a defiant, confrontational tone by the ISPY co-founders. “It seemed that there was an artificially created adversarial climate being adopted by the two women who are applying for the charter school,” she said.
Siever took issue with London Jacobs’ contention that communication between the school district and the petitioners was almost nonexistent the last time as well as what she saw as an inconsistency in their student population numbers at the meeting.
“They said that they plan to have 100 students and 90% percent of them are at risk student. The others are 30 % something else, but there’s only 10 left, which is not 30%,” the board member noted. “I think this speaks to their credibility.”
If ISPY is denied approval a second time, London Jacobs said she will seek authorization at the county level.
“If (the CCUSD school board) follows the law, we don’t expect them to deny us,” she said.
The school board is slated to vote on ISPY’s petition in December.
