Saugus Union School District staff will recommend that SUSD's Board deny a charter petition to the Albert Einstein Academy, according to a leaked copy of the staff report I reviewed earlier today. The Board will vote on the petition tomorrow night at SUSD's District Office.
The 54 page report lists multiple defeciencies in AEA's charter application from spelling and grammar errors in the petition itself to the petitioner's failure to provide "reasonably comprehensive" plans to ensure the school abides by the state's Education Code. The staff report also cites an "excessive entanglement" between the Einstein Academy's governing board and various SCV Jewish institutions like Temple Beth Ami and the Southern California Center for Jewish Life.
The finances of the proposed charter school are also brought into question by the staff report, which says that AEA & AEALAS (the Hart District charter school) is "experiencing severe financial problems."
Reading through the report, I was struck by how similar some of these defenciencies were to ones noted in previous petitions. It seems as if AEA is being dogged by the same problems, again and again. For instance, the staff report notes that AEA doesn't have "reasonably comprehensive" plans to ensure that the school has a racial & ethnic balance or provide for special education students. Indeed, the staff report quotes several times from last year's LA County Office of Education denial of AEA's charter petition, especially on the question of whether the school would really be nonsectarian as it claims.
That's especially striking in the report as staff members cross-referenced physical addresses listed in AEA's legal documents with the addresses of Temple Beth Ami and the Southern California Center for Jewish Life. Most of the addresses were the same.
I reached out to Kevin Korenthal, the charter school's spokesperson. He's preparing a number of responses to each defciency noted in the report and had this to say:
The staff report and resolution prepared by the Saugus Union School District staff regarding the Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences - Saugus elementary school petition appears to be a very low quality work product. It is riddled, from beginning to end, with errors, omissions, incorrect and out of date information and suspect claims of authority. The majority of the document is made up from subjective and factually incorrect statements regarding Einstein’s Charter Petition. A key problem with the document is its selective use of available information in making its case against the Einstein Charter Petition.The SUSD Board will decide tomorrow night whether to grant the petition based on the research of its staff. AEA has already been denied charter status by Saugus twice, Newhall once, and LACOE & Ventura County once each. No telling if the third time will be a charm for AEA, but based on this staff report, it doesn't look good.
Winger's Perspective on Charter Schools
Albert Einstein Charter, ctd
Albert Einstein Charter, ctd 2
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