Rocketship Education has pulled its charter petition to open an elementary school within the Morgan Hill Unified School District boundaries by fall 2014.
Vice President David Kuzienga of Bay Area operations for Rocketship confirmed Wednesday morning the Redwood City-based charter management organization has “withdrawn its appeal of charter petition denied by the Morgan Hill Unified School District.” The Santa Clara County Board of Education was scheduled to vote on Rocketship’s appeal of the MHUSD School Board’s petition denial next week.
“It was both humbling and invigorating to see the broad community and parent support for a new Rocketship Elementary School in Morgan Hill,” wrote Kuzienga. “We still believe that there is the need and the demand for more excellent schools in this community, and we believe we can be part of the effort to meet that demand.”
However, that will not happen for the 2014-15 school year.
The news of Rocketship’s withdrawal marks the latest twist in charter school saga that began nearly nine months ago as the community split over whether to welcome two new, separate charter schools into the city. Another charter management organization – Gilroy-based Navigator Schools – which has successful schools in Gilroy and Hollister – is also waiting to hear back from the County after MHUSD denied its petition in October. The County Board will vote Jan. 15 on Navigator’s appeal.
The latest development with Rocketship came as a surprise to MHUSD Trustee Amy Porter Jensen, who voted against the petition in November 2013 when the Board’s vote was 6-1 for denial.
“I am very pleased to hear that Rocketship has withdrawn their petition to open a school in Morgan Hill,” she said. “I do not think that they are a good fit for our district.”
Local attorney Armando Benavides, spokesperson for a contingent of Morgan Hill parents seeking alternative education options in the city, said the group is “disappointed that Rocketship will not be an option in the 2014 school year,” but is also “confident the SCCOE Board will approve the Navigator petition that we parents want also.”
“It’s been a wild ride,” said Navigator co-founder James Dent, who is anxiously awaiting Wednesday’s outcome. “Just another benchmark in the road for getting a Navigator School opened in Morgan Hill for the kids and the families.”
County Superintendent Xavier De La Torre said his office was notified Wednesday morning of Rocketship’s intention to withdraw its petition.
“It would be interesting to know what prompted that decision, but that’s something that Rocketship doesn’t have to share,” said De La Torre, whose staff was still reviewing both charter petitions and hadn’t arrived at a recommendation for either.
“Were there some valid concerns raised by Morgan Hill Unified School District? Absolutely,” De La Torre continued. “Would they be enough to have impeded the petition moving forward? Not sure.”
De La Torre said the County staff’s recommendation on Navigator’s petition is not finalized, but will be included with the Board of Education agenda, which will be posted Friday at www.sccoe.org.
Rocketship co-founder Preston Smith shed some light on the decision to withdraw. He also left the door open to the possibility of opening a Morgan Hill school in the future. Currently, the Rocketship network serves 3,800 kindergarten through fifth grade students at eight Bay Area schools.
“Overall, we know there is a need in Morgan Hill, and we hope the county will vote to approve (Navigator’s petition),” Smith said.
Feedback from the county during the review process, during which staff recommended Rocketship submit “a stronger and more robust” petition, played a role in the organization’s decision to withdraw, Smith added. However, Smith was unaware of other specific areas of concern identified by the county with Rocketship’s petition.
“We have two charters through Franklin-McKinley (School District) and the rest with the County Office, so we respect what they were saying,” Smith added. “We felt this was the responsible thing to do.”
County Board Trustee Joseph DiSalvo, a vocal supporter of a collaborative effort between school districts and charter organizations for the betterment of education as a whole, described Rocketship’s withdrawal as “a good thing.”
“I believe probably the best thing for them is to slow down, reassess to see where they are locally and build more relationships with (local school districts),” said DiSalvo, pointing to Rocketship’s ability to open 20 charters in San Jose since they were pre-approved in bulk by the county in 2010, in addition to its nationwide expansion into Milwaukee and Tennessee. “It’s all about relationships and I don’t see that Rocketship built those relationships with Morgan Hill Unified and the City Council.”
Before petitioning to MHUSD, Rocketship approached Council and requested a $50 million bond issuance to fund the Morgan Hill school and another in San Jose. Council denied the request, and MHUSD board members criticized Rocketship’s perceived hasty plans to build on a 1.6-acre plot of land behind the WorldGas station off Monterey Street on the corner of San Pedro and Church avenues.
De La Torre interjected that Rocketship was possibly caught off guard by the “level of detail and effort and energy that Morgan Hill Unified School District invested in reviewing their petition.”
“No district that I’m aware of has ever demonstrated that level of resistance and conviction in promoting the idea that what Rocketship was offering was not in the best interest of the children in their community,” the county superintendent noted.
