Why Should I Care?

If you don't have kids, or your kids aren't at Manor, you may think this doesn't impact you, so, why should you care?

1. Ross Valley Charter will be using taxpayer dollars without the oversight of our democratically elected school Board. They will be overseen by their own, self-appointed Board. Click here to read why the state of Washington Supreme Court ruled charters (like Ross Valley Charter) unconstitutional.

2. Bullis, Bullis, & Bullis (those are three different articles for you to read). Once the door has been opened by approval at any level, the charter school can keep returning for more of what it "deserves," which, by law, is "reasonably equivalent" space. In Los Altos, they've been dealing with Bullis Charter School, founded by tech execs, which has cost their District millions, resulted in school closures, teacher layoffs, protracted legal battles, and less money for ALL the district kids. As one parent in Los Altos District said, "no good deed goes unpunished." We don't need an expensive charter in Ross Valley!

3. They've discriminated. Click here to read a bit about that. If you believe that discrimination, especially in public education, is wrong, then understand the 10+ year history of discrimination in MAP, which they will take with them with less oversight in a charter school.

4. Many of the same people who oversaw MAP when it was discriminatory are involved in the Ross Valley Charter, including current members of the MAP leadership council (click here to see the current MLC), all the MAP Teachers, former RVSD Trustees Conn Hickey and Sharon Sagar. Can we trust them now to do the right thing?

5. If the locate at Red Hill, the traffic impacts will be horrible! 

"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

Read the timeline here of litigation related to Bullis Charter School in Los Altos. Sit down before you read it - dizziness will ensue!

Read here about Los Altos School District parents' reaction to learning that hundreds of their students will be displaced and a school site closed to accommodate Bullis, which educates the children of Silicon Valley tech execs.

We must defeat the Ross Valley Charter, because, if approved, it could drain millions of dollars over the next years from our local school district, displace students, and further divide our Ross Valley community.

Our Ross Valley Schools are great, and deserve our support!!

The new charter school scheme: This is how GOP and privatizers have bled Pennsylvania schools

Read more here to learn about how public school teachers in one district are now working without pay due to Pennsylvania charter schools.

According to the article, "the district’s ongoing financial problems are because of the state’s funding formula, specifically what the school district is required to pay to charter schools. The school district receives about $16,000 for children with learning disabilities from the state, but it is required to give the charter schools $40,000 for each student listed with a learning disability.”

Let's shut the door on this nonsense ever coming to Ross Valley!

Let MCOE know that you oppose the RVC petition by emailing the MCOE Trustees c/o Superintendent Mary Jane Burke: marincoe@marinschools.org

Include the following: 

1. RVC/MAP is no different than current RVSD programs, which are also aligned with Common Core and project based;
2. MAP has a long-standing history of discrimination which they will take with them;
3. Their financial projections are highly questionable due to unrealistic enrollment projections and an inaccurate assessment of the MAP waitlist.

Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badly

More on last Friday's historic Washington state Supreme Court ruling that charter schools are unconstitutional. Click here.

We do not need an expensive and burdensome charter school in our already cash-strapped district!

Let's shut the door on this nonsense ever coming to Ross Valley!

Let MCOE know that you oppose the RVC petition by emailing the MCOE Trustees c/o Superintendent Mary Jane Burke: marincoe@marinschools.org

Include the following:

1. RVC/MAP is no different than current RVSD programs, which are also aligned with Common Core and project based;
2. MAP has a long-standing history of discrimination which they will take with them;
3. Their financial projections are highly questionable due to unrealistic enrollment projections and an inaccurate assessment of the MAP waitlist.

Washington Supreme Court Rules Charter Schools Unconstitutional

Yesterday, after considering for nearly a year, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional because they divert taxpayer dollars intended for public schools, and governed by democratically elected officials, to self-appointed groups. 

According to the Seattle Times (link to full article here), "Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that charter schools aren’t “common schools” because they’re governed by appointed rather than elected boards. Therefore, “money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools,” Madsen wrote." 

Similarly, if approved, Ross Valley Charter School would be run, not by a democratically, tax-payer elected group, but by a small group of self-appointed folks. If this seems decidedly undemocratic and un-American to you, please let the MCOE know.

MAP Program Not In Compliance with California Department of Education Code for 18 Years

This email from Superintendent Rick Bagley and Director of Student Services, Teri Louer, was sent to all RVSD parents last week. In the few months they have been on the job, they have been working to investigate and ensure that all of our District programs are compliant with relevant laws. It is important to do so in order to have certainty that all RVSD students are receiving high quality education, and to reduce the District's exposure to possible litigation. Read the email below to find out what they discovered about the District's MAP Program:

"A Message from the Superintendent and Director of Student Services
                                          
March 18, 2015
 
Dear RVSD Community,
 
At last night's meeting of the Board of Trustees, staff shared important information we recently learned from the California Department of Education (CDE) regarding the status of our Multi-Age Program (MAP) at Manor Elementary School. We are sharing this information with the community and in particular, parents who are waiting to hear about the outcome of the MAP kindergarten lottery scheduled for April 2, 2015.  We want to notify everyone that the lottery process may be delayed for the reasons explained below.
 
MAP was originally created as an "alternative program of choice," meaning one or more waivers of certain sections of the California Education Code had to be approved by the RVSD Board of Trustees and the CDE.  Original waivers were approved and filed in 1996 for items such as the program's enrollment process (e.g. lottery), governance structure and certain aspects of the curriculum.
 
Since MAP's inception the CDE required annual renewal of these waivers as well as an annual report of the alternative program's progress.  Both our records and those of the CDE indicate the required annual reports have not been filed since 1997.
 
As a result, the CDE indicates we must retroactively approve MAP as an alternative program of choice, if the District wishes it to continue in this status.  Retroactive approval is a process we are exploring further, but appears similar in scope to the original approval process, including a number of steps such as public hearings, meetings with our bargaining units and ultimately Board approval.
 
It is our current understanding that one of the elements of MAP requiring a waiver is the ability to use a lottery to enroll students from outside the Manor attendance area.  We'd planned to conduct the lottery on April 2, 2015, but are now considering postponing this event until MAP's current status has been determined and approved.  Conducting a lottery without the authority or approval to do so, violates CDE’s requirements, our own District policies and potentially unfairly impacts our incoming students.
 
We realize a delay in the lottery may be unsettling to parents who are seeking admission to MAP for 2015-16, but we believe it is equally (if not more) unsettling to possibly be told a student has been selected for enrollment, only to learn later that he/she could not be admitted via a lottery process.
 
At this time we do not believe the District's lack of compliance (since 1997) with the State's required waiver and annual reporting requirements, compromises the 2014-15 instructional program for currently enrolled MAP students.  Our greater concern is how to proceed prospectively with future enrollment, as the process used depends upon whether or not MAP is approved as an alternative program of choice.
 
We will keep everyone informed as this process unfolds and as always, please let us know if you have any questions."
 
Sincerely,
 
Rick Bagley, Ed.D.
Superintendent
 
Teri Louer, M.A.
Director of Student Services

Current Manor Enrollment Numbers Show Persistent Discrimination

According to data recently released by Ross Valley School District under a Freedom of Information Act Request*, huge discrepancies between the MAP and K5 programs at Manor School persist (see below). Though 83% of MAP students come from the Manor enrollment area (per October 2014 Discrimination Report), an overwhelming percentage of kids with special needs, from low-income families, and who speak English as a second language, are staggeringly underrepresented in MAP. Also, please note that Manor's K5 program serves a larger percentage of these students by far than any other District school. Manor has two separate and unequal programs.

As we know that MAP's student body is approximately 120, and K5's population is 265, here's how the percentages by program break down:

• IEP Students:                             MAP - 5.8%      K5 - 10.9%
• English Language Learners:      MAP - 1.6%      K5 - 9%
• Free & Reduced Lunch:             MAP - 5%         K5 - 17%

What does all of this mean?

It means that K5 teachers are working with a much wider range of abilities in their student population, and that more of the K5 families are struggling with poverty, immigration and educational issues than in MAP. There are more needs in K5, and fewer resources available to address those needs. 

What can you do?

Email the Ross Valley School District Superintendent & Trustees now to ask them to unify Manor School as one community, and ensure equity for all of our children! You don't need to say much - one or two lines letting them know that you support their attempts to rectify long standing inequities.

Copy and paste the following email addresses into the "To" window of your email: 

Rbagley@rossvalleyschools.org, 

trustee.bauer@rossvalleyschools.org, 

trustee.capron@rossvalleyschools.org, 

trustee.dettmer@rossvalleyschools.org, 

trustee.pratt@rossvalleyschools.org, 

trustee.stock@rossvalleyschools.org

Note: Hidden Valley houses the RVSD special education classes, and thus has a high percentage of IEP students.

*If you would like to see the letter from the District which accompanied these tables, please email: saverossvalleyschools@gmail.com

Marin IJ Reports on Brown Act Complaint by Charter Board Members

The Marin IJ recently reported on the Brown Act Complaint filed by two members of the Ross Valley Charter School Board agains the Ross Valley School Board. The complainants, Conn Hickey and Sharon Sagar, are former Trustees of the Ross Valley School Board, and, as such, had direct oversight over the district's MAP program for many years. 

Click here to read how the duo is attempting to "spin a web of circumstantial evidence to make its case," and cost our public school district additional time, money and resources which our children sorely need.

Charter Petition Dropped (for now)!

We are pleased to share the news that after meeting with MCOE Superintendent Mary Jane Burke, RVCS has decided "not to proceed on a timeline that would allow us to open an independent charter school in 2015-16 (read their statement here)." 

As you may already be aware, there are long-standing, though unintentional, discriminatory practices in the current MAP program (read the IJ article here) which the Ross Valley Charter School would have concretized if approved (those practices factored into the District's denial of the RVCS petition). RVCS states they now "want to work together with the District and the entire Manor community to...reach peaceful solutions that allow both programs to thrive," and "increase student diversity."

We welcome the opportunity to come together as a community to ensure that ALL students and families in our community feel welcomed by our wonderful local public schools!

We still need you, however, to keep an eye on the process of rectifying long-standing discriminatory (intentional or not) practices, and encourage you to voice your concerns to our Superintendent, Dr. Rick Bagley, the RVSD Trustees, and the Editor of the Marin IJ.

Though they may try again in the future, this is a huge victory for equity in public education, and your courage and conviction helped to make it happen! 

Thank you for raising your voice!

The Save Ross Valley Schools Team

NY Times on the Charter School Battle in the Suburbs

Found this interesting article (though three years old) on a suburban charter battle in New Jersey. The article shows how divisive the battle can be, and this charter was framed similarly as a "choice" for children within a very successful school district. A Millburn Parents Against Charter Schools spokesperson explained, “I’m in favor of a quality education for everyone,” Mr. Stewart said. “In suburban areas like Millburn, there’s no evidence whatsoever that the local school district is not doing its job. So what’s the rationale for a charter school?” 

In a parallel to RVSD, that District stood to lose almost $300,000 at a time when they didn't have "enough money to run the schools as it is."

According to Mr. Stewart,  "Public education is basically a social contract — we all pool our money, so I don’t think I should be able to custom-design it to my needs,” he said, noting that he pays $15,000 a year in property taxes. “With these charter schools, people are trying to say, ‘I want a custom-tailored education for my children, and I want you, as my neighbor, to pay for it.’ ”