Home Antioch Antioch School Board Agrees to Issue Notice of Violation to Rocketship Charter School

Antioch School Board Agrees to Issue Notice of Violation to Rocketship Charter School

by ECT

Last Week, the Antioch Unified School District agreed in a 4-1 vote to issue a Notice of Violation to Rocketship Delta Prep for multiple violations pursuant to Education Code.

In December of 2016, the school board voted to approve a petition to establish the Charter School for a five-year term that began July 1, 2018 where a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was agreed upon and approved on June 27, 2018 outline operation obligations, including the provisions of special education and related services.

According to the District:

  1. Committed a material violation of any conditions, standards, or procedures set forth in the charter
  2. Failed to meet generally accepted accounting principles, or engaged in fiscal mismanagement.
  3. Violated any provision of law.

The parties agreed when executing the MOU that any violation of that agreement also constitutes grounds for revocation pursuant to Education Code section 47607(c).

According to the Staff Report, which was 169-pages, the District outlined a series of concerns and on November 14, 2018 notified Rocketship of its failure to adhere to and comply with specific obligations in the MOU.

Within the document, it also states that more than 10% of students enrolled at Rocketship have returned to the Antioch Unified School District. Meanwhile, the District records say the Charter School has failed to notify the District of approximately 53% of the students who have left the school and returned to the District where they say many families have communicated concerns with the Charter Schools operations and instructional program.

The staff reported stated:

The Charter School was slow to respond and to date, has not addressed all of the District’s concerns, as discussed more fully below. The District also notified the Charter School of its failure to timely comply with statutory audit report requirements. The Charter School was again unpunctual in responding, requested numerous extensions without providing explanations for such delays and to date, has not addressed all of the District’s concerns with that issue, as discussed more fully below. As a result, the District’s Administration has lost all confidence in the Charter School’s leadership team.

The District further says:

A. Failed to Provide Timely Audit Report
B. Failed to Maintain Appropriate Credential Status of All Teachers
C. Failed to Provide Continuum of Services for All Special Needs Students
D. Failed to Timely Notify District of Disenrolled Pupils.
E. Failed to provide Student Records in Timely Manner

According to Scott Holbrook, AUSD legal, Rocketship finally did respond, but it was at 3:00 pm via email just before the Wednesday meeting. Legal also stated it was a consolidated report.

Holbrook added they were required to provide an audit report closing out the 2017-18 school year and by law and by charter was to be provided by Dec. 15 of last year.

“The Charter school requested not 1, not 2, but 3 extensions of that time frame. They did not submit that audit report until February 6, almost two-months later. Almost two-months beyond when the statutory timeline was in place,” explained Holbrook. “Their submission was so late, that by law the District had to notify the State Comptrollers office, and the Department of Education about this untimely submission. This school has a budget of $5 million of public monies. You has elected officials, you are the stewards of the public monies, yo have an obligation to ensure and monitor the fiscal oversight of this school.”

Holbrook said the District cannot provide oversight if they do not have the documents.

“There is absolutely no excuse for the charter school to present the audit report two-months late. No excuse, its entirely unacceptable,” said Holbrook.

During the meeting, there were 9 public comments (a little over 30-minutes) who spoke in favor of Rocketship and offered support.

During Board Discussion, Trustee Ellie Householder explained that tonight was not the beginning of a revocation process.

“We have a fiduciary duty as board members to provide financial oversight, we are your chartering organization,” stated Householder. “We cannot provide our due diligence in terms of the financial documents and the oversight we are legally required to unless we have the documentation. We have sent multiple courtesy notices, like near the ten amount.”

Householder acknowledged the Superintendent has put in a lot of time to try and reach out to Rocketship to get the information.

“We cannot move forward in this process unless we have the financial documents and some of these other credentialing documents. It is just not a matter of putting a teachers name and having a credential, we have to see the credential and be able to verify these things,” stated Householder who added this was not an attack on Rocketship. “What we are talking about his handing over documents that you are legally required to hand over.”

Householder continued saying she has made attempts to visit Rocketship but has had no response and questioned why no one had responded.

“Why has nobody responded?” asked Householder. “So to say we are mounting this maniacal campaign against Rocketship is frankly untrue… I want this to work, but apparently the courtesy notices, the phone calls haven’t worked, to me we are between to a rock and a hard place. Legally we have to provide this oversight, so best case scenario, we get the documents and its fine.”

Trustee Crystal Sawyer-White stated she has not yet visited Rocketship but drove by while it was being built and was impressed. She called the action tonight “harsh” and wanted to see a timeline of the communications.

“I still think there should be a choice for our kids. I believe that there is an issue in addressing students of color. It is disappointing,” stated Sawyer-White who went onto share her experience of the difficulties of volunteering in an AUSD classroom. “You can only volunteer for an hour and then its like okay parent, now it is time for you to go. I am open to hear more about the parents who are volunteering more than one hour a day. I am hearing from parents that they feel welcome to volunteer in the classroom.”

She then questioned credentials because of how parents were teaching in the classroom at Antioch Charter 4-to-5 years ago but are now on Rocketships case.

“I am going to vote against this. I think we need to work this out,” stated Sawyer-White.

Householder interjected saying anecdotally she has heard a lot of good things about Rocketship.

“But antidotes to me, we cannot provide antidotes to the California Department of Education, to the Comptrollers Office, to the county and these other institutions, so anecdotally it sounds awesome, it really does sound cool, but we just need those documents,” said Householder. “We need the documents and proof in a timely fashion.”

Trustee Diane Gibson-Gray acknowledged she has been painted as “anti-charter” but that the Charter has already been approved and it wasn’t an issue for her.

“The issue is this is a business, run it like a business,” said Gibson-Gray. “I am going to vote for this because 1, 2, 3 phone calls, letters, emails, whatever, we just need the information and this just secures that we get it. I am hopefully we get the information and that will be the end of the story.”

Board President Gary Hack said this action had nothing to do with the validity of Rocketship, but rather the Notice of Violation.

Trustee Mary Rocha added that this was part of the process.

“Sometimes we have to get to this point, to make things move. This is now in your terms, so your response, you have 30-days. These questions, that is all you have to do,” said Rocha.

The Board the approved the issuance of Notice of Violation in a 4-1 vote with Sawyer-White dissenting.

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