The State Board of Education is the last chance for petitioners. The lead petitioners plan to regroup and poll parents and teachers about whether they should continue with their effort.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
The Los Angeles County Board of Education by a unanimous vote on Tuesday denied a petition to turn Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School into a charter school. Petitioners have one remaining avenue for appeal, the State Board of Education in Sacramento.
The county board appeared to have already made up its mind, because there was no discussion of the matter after pro- and anti-charter sides spoke before the board. Board member Maria Elena Yepes did preface the vote with an apparent nod to the petitioners.
“We have considered everything seriously, and regardless of how the vote comes out, know that it was an informed vote from each and every board member at this table,” Yepes said.
A county staff report presented to the board last week found that the Point Dume petition lacked diversity and a sound financial plan, among other deficiencies. Petitioners countered that they would add diversity by recruiting students from outside Malibu and that the school already receives significant funding from parents.
But the board followed its staff’s advice, which mirrored the conclusions drawn by Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) staff before the district’s Board of Education first denied the petition in December.
Point Dume parent Ali Thonson, one of the lead petitioners, said the petitioners will regroup before appealing to the state.
“We go back and we discuss with our teachers, we discuss with our parent community about continuing the appeals process, so that it’s really a teachers’ decision and a parent community decision,” Thonson said.
Recent changes to the state board do not bode well for the success of an appeal. In January, Gov. Jerry Brown replaced seven board appointees of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s with his own. The new appointees are considered more traditional and less supportive of charter schools than their predecessors.
“We really don’t have any indication of how they will act as a board as a group, because we haven’t heard anything,” Thonson said. “Apparently they do have a couple of charters that will be up for renewal, so I think that would be a really good indication to which way they’re leaning.”
Kathy Wisnicki, the last Malibu resident to serve on the SMMUSD Board of Education, told The Malibu Times that the dour financial climate was working against petitioners.
“I think they’re going to have a hard time,” Wisnicki said. “The state is trying to consolidate school districts.”
Wisnicki cautioned that a successful appeal was not impossible, especially if Malibu residents start lobbying their congressional representatives.
“But the ideal is for it to pass before the district,” Wisnicki said. “The district chose not to do that, for various reasons. The county typically goes with the district. And the state is even more difficult. I know that from experience.”
The state board must review any charter appeal within 60 days of receiving the appeal. If petitioners submitted an appeal in February, a hearing would likely occur in late March or April.