More than 100 students, parents, teachers and administrators
packed into the Gilroy Unified School District board room for a
2.5-hour, standing-room-only torrent of tears, laughter, applause
and passionate testimony about El Portal Leadership Academy. But
the dismal test scores and financial instability exhibited by
Gilroy’s only charter school cast a cloud over the crowd’s glowing
reviews as GUSD trustees posed some tough questions regarding the
school’s financial and academic viability.
More than 100 students, parents, teachers and administrators packed into the Gilroy Unified School District board room for a 2.5-hour, standing-room-only torrent of tears, laughter, applause and passionate testimony about El Portal Leadership Academy. But the dismal test scores and financial instability exhibited by Gilroy’s only charter school cast a cloud over the crowd’s glowing reviews as GUSD trustees posed some tough questions regarding the school’s financial and academic viability.
The school district recently entered into a $10,000 contract with consultants Total School Solutions to scrutinize the finances and academic progress of El Portal – run by the Mexican American Community Services Agency. The findings, which were presented at Thursday night’s board meeting, were bleak. The audit confirmed that MACSA owes its El Portal employees $140,139.93 in late retirement payments – money administrators skimmed from employees’ accounts without their permission so that the agency could pay operating and program expenses. This on top of already shaky finances, according to Kari Sousa, a representative from Total School Solutions. The nonprofit previously confirmed that it owes employees of its San Jose charter school, Academia Calmecac, an additional $250,000.
Meanwhile, at the behest of the Santa Clara County District Attorney, the county Office of Education has initiated a review of El Portal, said Larry Slonaker, spokesman for the COE. The COE has requested the involvement of the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team to conduct a review on the basis of a section of the education code, which stipulates that in the event that a county superintendent has reason to believe that fraud, misappropriation of funds or other illegal activities have occurred, the county superintendent can conduct an audit.
At the same time, the COE has joined East Side Union High School District in requesting a similar review for Academia Calmecac, Slonaker said.
“I don’t think it’s uncommon for a charter school to operate on a fairly slim margin,” Sousa said. “What is uncommon is not meeting obligations in terms of retirement contributions. That’s an indication that there’s more going on here than we see. It’s very uncommon.”
The auditors were unable to meet with MACSA Chief Executive Officer Olivia Soza-Mendiola due to her absence from work during the week they requested, Sousa said. Total School Solutions also had trouble accessing various documents that were requested, including self-assessments, insurance certificates and proof of accreditation.
Based on the documents that were available, Total School Solutions concluded that El Portal had a negative fund balance, as of June 30, 2008, of $103,283 and a total of $144,165 in liabilities, not including the $140,000 in owed retirement funds. However, MACSA has already made a $66,000 payment to its El Portal employees’ retirement accounts and plans to be caught up by the summer, Soza-Mendiola said.
District staff’s report on the school’s academic progress revealed poor performance on state standardized tests and classrooms lacking the necessary instructional tools to move student progress forward.
But many of the 37 members of the audience who took to the microphone, including students and Councilman Peter Arellano, asked the school board to separate the school’s financial woes from its place in the community and its academic performance. Several students who were teased, involved in gangs and in danger of dropping out of school when they were at Gilroy High School found success at El Portal, they said.
Students crammed into the overflowing board room and spilled out into the lobby where they watched the meeting on a television set. The district retained a translator for the benefit of the many Spanish speakers in the audience who listened to the meeting through headphones.
“Before I came to El Portal, I was always by myself,” said Janette Garcia, a senior at El Portal whose voice shook with emotion during her address to the school board. When she broke down into tears, El Portal Principal Graciela Valladares joined her at the podium for support.
“I never thought I would go to college,” Garcia said, going on to tell the board that she had been accepted to the National Hispanic University to the applause of the audience.
Other students described how their grades shot up from straight Fs to As and Bs when they enrolled at El Portal.
The secretary of MACSA’s board, Ramon Martinez, asked the school board not to look at El Portal students as “those kids” and give them the same support the school district gives other Gilroy public schools. He said the district was comparing apples to oranges when looking at El Portal’s academics compared to Gilroy High’s.
But former school board member Jaime Rosso, who said he was moved by the show of support for El Portal, pointed to Eliot Elementary, a school with similar demographics to El Portal’s that showed the highest improvement in the entire county on last year’s state standardized tests.
“It does distress me when I see student progress is in fact gong backwards,” he said. “Because I know we can and should be doing better than that.”
“We all know we had a crash and burn year,” Soza-Mendiola said, referring to a turnover in leadership within the last year. “There is a rebuilding that needs to take place. Is this a school that is needed in Gilroy? Absolutely.”
Board members didn’t dispute the need for a school like El Portal in Gilroy, however, and many emphasized the school’s value. But the deficiencies highlighted by the financial and academic audits raised concerns among board members and district staff.
“There are so many questions that were not answered,” trustee Denise Apuzzo said. “Anybody who lives in this community knows MACSA does good work. But because they’re a good organization, does that mean they can run a school? Academically, they’re not succeeding. If everybody is getting As and Bs, why aren’t they proficient on state tests. The accountability doesn’t match up.”
Though the president of MACSA’s board, Louis Rocha, disputed the verity of the financial data presented by the district, he said his board has been diligently pursuing many of the same issues audited by the district and will be presenting their own report April 9.
“Much of the data presented as facts is just not true,” he said. When trustees pressed him for more information – “How did this start? When did this start?” Apuzzo asked – he asked that the school board be patient while MACSA’s board compiles its report.
“We ask that you collaborate with us and we will make a presentation when we are ready,” he said. “We have been transparent and are doing all we can to get this done as quickly as possible.”
Trustees made it clear to the public that the school board did its part to reach out to MACSA for information.
The GUSD school board hoped to have the MACSA board’s report in hand for further consideration at an April 23 board meeting.
