February 2025 ACCS - Item 1 Public Comment 1

January 30, 2025

RE: Item 1- Altus Schools South Bay Charter Renewal Petition

Dear Members of the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools:

The California School Employees Association (CSEA), AFL-CIO, respectfully urges the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (ACCS) to recommend that the State Board of Education (SBE) deny the Altus Schools South Bay (ASSB) charter renewal petition.

CSEA has long maintained that charter schools should be subject to local establishment, renewal, accountability, and oversight, just as the Charter Schools Act of 1992 envisioned. AB 1505 (Chapter 486, Statutes of 2019) reaffirmed this preference for local governance when it removed the SBE’s statutory authority to authorize charter schools and required the SBE to transition the authorization of any existing SBE-authorized charters to local districts and counties.

The insight that local authorizers provide during the charter renewal process is invaluable, as evidenced in Sweetwater Union High School District’s analysis of the ASSB renewal petition. The CDE developed a set of 18 alternative metrics for ASSB as a Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) charter. ASSB met several of those criteria on the grounds that ASSB outperformed the other DASS schools located within San Diego County. However, Sweetwater Union notes that the other DASS schools to which ASSB is being compared serve a very different student population than ASSB—the district’s DASS schools are created for the purpose of serving only students with significant mental health and discipline factors impacting their education, while ASSB serves a population that is 71% students in “high risk student groups” generally. Sweetwater Union additionally notes that, since the start of the charter’s term, ASSB’s math scores and graduation rates have fallen, indicating serious concerns regarding the efficacy of their programs.

Through a public process and thorough analysis of the renewal petition, the Sweetwater Union High School District Board unanimously voted to deny ASSB’s charter renewal. Overturning the decision of a local school board further distances charter schools from the communities that they serve and hampers local accountability.

For these reasons, we respectfully urge the ACCS to recommend that the SBE deny the ASSB charter renewal petition. If you have any questions regarding CSEA’s position, please do not hesitate to contact me at cmancini@csea.com or (916) 329-3622. Thank you.

Sincerely,

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION

Cassie Mancini
Legislative Advocate

CM:tt

cc: Chris Masami Myers, Interim Director, Governmental Relations

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