Amid bond confusion, Rocketship forges ahead

After hearing a parade of threats of political backlash from concerned community members and vague warnings about the potential danger of charter schools, the City Council – baffled by the utter complexity of the process – last week denied Rocketship Education’s request to pursue up to $50 million in bonds to finance new charter schools in Morgan Hill and San Jose.
This latest development comes at a time when newly released state test scores strengthen the conviction of local charter school advocates, who say more educational options are needed in Morgan Hill.
Meanwhile, against a backdrop of impassioned sentiments ricocheting between teachers, parents, charter school administrators and district staff – County Superintendent Xavier De La Torre offered some level-headed perspective on the educational trend that has Morgan Hill abuzz. Both San Jose-based Rocketship and Gilroy-based Navigator Schools are petitioning to open new elementary charter schools by the 2014-15 school year.
“The County office recognizes that the two have to coexist,” De La Torre said in a recent interview. “It isn’t about the schools, per say. It’s about the students.”
Superintendent Steve Betando of the Morgan Hill Unified School District agrees – to a certain extent.
He does “value charters that do bring in a particular niche” that can better serve a particular group of students. But in the case of Rocketship and Navigator, they “do not meet the need of the district” because “we are meeting the needs of those students,” Betando contends.
Director of Development Jessica Garcia-Kohl for Rocketship begs to differ, citing the latest test performance data released by the California Department of Education, as well as the signatures of 350 Morgan Hill residents on Rocketship’s petition. That’s why the organization is confidently moving forward and has already identified the land – 1.6 acres near the intersection of San Pedro and Church Streets – where it plans to build its new school.
But some members of the community and school district say Rocketship is putting the cart before the horse. This grievance was at the crux of last week’s public hearing, a preliminary step in the charter school opening that hit a snag when Council voted 4-1 to deny Rocketship’s request to start the process of acquiring bonds.
One of the Council’s chief concerns is that Rocketship is seeking funding for a project that has not yet secured a charter.
Andrea Bird, a counselor at Ann Sobrato High School, touched on this when she told Council that Rocketship’s effort to exercise their right to seek bonds for a project was a sign of “disrespect” to the City and MHUSD.
Other concerns were also vetted during the hearing.
Councilman Rich Constantine said if the charter school ends up siphoning money from MHUSD, with whom the City has a cooperative relationship, that could be harmful to the existing traditional schools.
Many of those who spoke against the Rocketship project were MHUSD teachers who are worried about losing their jobs if a new charter school were to force the closure of an existing elementary school, according to Garcia-Kohl. This could happen if Rocketship reaches its projected enrollment of about 600 students, according to President Theresa Sage of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers.
“If the City is asking us to get a charter and come back, that’s what we’ll do,” Garcia-Kohl said.
But even if the City had approved the request, the Council doesn’t have the final say-so on the issuance of the bonds. That authority belongs to the California Municipal Finance Authority.
The Council’s vote was one step in the process for Rocketship to secure the bonds. The organization now plans to submit its charter petition to MHUSD later this month, be present during the Board of Education’s public hearing on the petition next month and then hold a second bond issuance hearing before the Council by the end of the year.
However things play out, Councilman Larry Carr said it’s the “wrong order” for Rocketship to seek financing before gaining a charter.
“The charter is not up to us, but that needs to come first,” Carr said.
Technically, Rocketship only needs charter approval from the County Board of Education – and it’s already been given the go-ahead to open more than 20 charters schools in Santa Clara County.
But, as De La Torre – who prefers reviewing charter petitions on a “case-by-case basis” – pointed out, it’s important for a charter organization to work with the local school district. He said charter organizations traditionally oblige this practice.
Wednesday’s public hearing almost immediately devolved into a philosophical discussion of the effectiveness of traditional public schools versus charter schools.
There are two charter schools in Morgan Hill: The Charter School of Morgan Hill opened in 2001, serves grades K though 8 at 9530 Monterey Road and has historically posted the highest test scores of all schools in Morgan Hill; Silicon Valley Flex Academy opened in 2011 and serves grades six through 12 at 610 Jarvis Drive.
Navigator Schools, which opened its first facility in 2011 in Gilroy and its second this year in Hollister, is also going through the petition process and hoping to set up a new Morgan Hill facility that will serve 180 kindergartners through second-graders in its first year.
Many charter advocates point to the 2012-13 Accountability Progress Report released last week by the California Department of Education. The Academic Performance Index is the state’s yardstick for measuring a school’s educational success and growth, with a benchmark of 800. The Charter School of Morgan Hill and Gilroy Prep scored district-highs of 893 and 942, respectively, while the district-wide scores for MHUSD and GUSD were 795 and 804. Rocketship’s network-wide API was 822.
Betando said he hates to place “too much credence” on API scores.
De La Torre contends: If a school district comes under fire for being ineffective and finds an unwelcome charter school knocking on its front door, it’s up to that school district to “do things differently.”
“If there are enough parents out there, if there’s a population of people that want something other than what they receive at a traditional public school,” De La Torre said, there is little the local district or the county can do to stop them from opening, as long as the charter has a well-written, strong petition and an effective track record in educating students.
The heart of Rocketship’s and Navigator Schools’ educational model is to lower the achievement gap in state test scores between students from the poorest socio-economic group (predominantly Hispanic and English Learner subgroups) and the higher-performing White and Asian subgroups.
2012-13 API scores by subgroups: Hispanic/Latino and English Language Learners
• MHUSD: 723/713
• Gilroy Prep: 938/948
• Rocketship’s Mateo Sheedy Elementary School: 844/837
• Charter School of Morgan Hill: 860 (*did not have any English Language Learners)