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Adds comment from AEALAS CEO Maggie Ford
Los Angeles County education staff members are recommending a denial of the charter school petition for Albert Einstein Academy for the Letters, Arts and Sciences’ high school.
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The seventh- through 12th-grade campus applied for an appeal for its charter school petition after the Hart district denied the charter school’s petition.
The county’s Board of Education is expected to review the recommendation by county staff at a hearing next week, when it can approve the appeal or deny the charter. The meeting is expected to take place May 16 at 3 p.m.
AEA CEO Maggie Ford issued the following statement in response to the staff findings:
“At approximately 4:15 today the LACOE Staff Released its report to the Board. As expected they recommended that the Board deny our appeal. This decision was expected and we have been preparing our response for many weeks. Please keep in mind that these reports are used to dig deeply into the schools academics, operations and finances. The role of the LACOE staff is to diligently review these areas and provide a thorough report. The report was thorough but doesn’t tell the entire story. It is our job to tell the rest of the story. Our school is an academically rigorous, operationally sound and financially solvent organization. We are a safe haven for all students and have a dedicated and highly qualified staff. We will provide a compelling rebuttal to the report and we are confident that we will prevail on Tuesday.”
The pair of denials only affect the upper grades — the Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District approved a charter for the kindergarten through sixth-grade school, which is located in Newhall.
Previous story: Hart District Report Recommends Denying Einstein Academy Petition
Staff for the William S. Hart Union High School District found numerous problems with continuing their oversight of the school, citing financial concerns, questions about accountability practices and worry about whether the charter school is likely to be able to meet its stated goals going forward.
A call to Einstein Academy officials was not immediately returned.
The three main findings cited on supporting documents for the Los Angeles County Board of Education’s denial are: The petition provides an unsound educational program for students to be enrolled in the school. [EC 47605(b)(1)]; the petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the proposed educational program. [EC 47605(b)(2)]; the petition does not contain a reasonably comprehensive description of all required elements.
“The Hart Board considered increases in pupil academic achievement for all groups of pupils served by Einstein as the most important factor in determining whether to grant its renewal. The County Board also considered increases in pupil academic achievement for all groups of pupils served by the school as the most important factor in determining whether to grant renewal,” according to the LACOE report. (The information can be found here, starting on page 17, with supporting documents on page 204.)
The Education Code limits reasons for denial to the following: (1) The charter school presents an unsound educational program; (2) The petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the program; (3) The petition does not contain the required number of signatures; (4) The petition does not contain an affirmation of specified assurances; and (5) the petition does not contain reasonably comprehensive descriptions of the required elements.
Notably, LACOE staff reported the following:
Academics: Schoolwide, Einstein’s academic performance is strong. However, there are concerns regarding the lack of disaggregated, internal benchmark data. For example, CAASPP testing is not administered at the ninth and tenth grades, and the school provided no internal metrics to show academic growth.
This, coupled with a lack of reported outcomes of the prior charter petition, makes it difficult to determine the actual performance of all groups of students served by the school. Enrollment: Enrollment has increased over the past years at Einstein. All grade levels are represented and there was significant growth from the early years to the current enrollment of approximately 463 students.
However, as explained in Finding 5, Element 8, there are significant concerns regarding access for all student groups and non-AEALAS, Inc. elementary school-affiliated students who wish to attend Einstein.
The significant absence of subgroups that are otherwise represented in Hart District (i.e., ELs, Hispanic, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students) is persistently demonstrated in enrollment demographics.
While the petition posits that the school “will actively recruit a diverse population of students” the first years of Einstein’s operation saw zero ELs and the percentage of socioeconomically disadvantaged students is lower than the Hart District averages.
Hey Perry. Up to your old style again?
The meeting has not occurred. Please stop reporting “facts before the meeting” .
If you got your hands on something before the meeting, then you should be charged with obstruction or at least fired.
Please leave your past in the past.
The school also has a problem with investigating its baseball coach for improprieties. He transmitted a sexual joke to his coaches and verbally told a sexual joke to a 15 year old player. Other transgressions were identified and provided to the school principal Mr. McDonnell. Six weeks later the parent was not contacted to view the cell phone sexual joke and the student has not been contacted to verify a sexual joke was told to him. I believe the school knows they are closing and don’t care about the conduct of their baseball coach.