Charter schools: San Jose Unified proposal to move charter high school ignites furor mercurynews/education/ci_27319573/charter-schools-san-jose-unified-proposal-move-high By Sharon Noguchisnoguchi@mercurynews POSTED: 01/14/2015 12:32:06 PM PST Downtown College Prep in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group) ( LiPo Ching ) RELATED STORIES • Jan 14: • Mercury News editorial: Let Downtown College Prep stay where it is SAN JOSE -- For a decade and a half, Downtown College Prep has offered kids from this citys toughest neighborhoods a chance to escape to the leafy avenues around The Alameda and apply themselves toward a better academic future. But in a move that has outraged DCP administrators and parents, the San Jose Unified School District wants to move the citys oldest charter school back to a rougher neighborhood, east of downtown, arguing it will be better for all students. Downtown College Prep freshman Jenny Martinez, 17, does her homework in the Media Center during their lunch break at Downtown College Prep in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group) (LiPo Ching) Under the districts proposal, the high school would move from its custom-designed quarters at the Hester campus to a refurbished campus across the street from San Jose High School on Julian and North 24th streets. DCP and its supporters adamantly argue that the switch would destroy its successful program grooming struggling students for college. Of its class of 2014, 84 percent were accepted to four-year colleges -- a rate the school boasts is many times the statewide rate for low-income Latino students, who make up the majority of the school. Advertisement DCP is already achieving what the district aspires to, and rather than invest in us, their proposal will destroy us, said DCP Executive Director Jennifer Andaluz. The school district spent $4 million nine years ago to redesign Hester to suit DCP. Its central media room serves as the gathering place thats key to building the student community, Andaluz said. And the campus, 11/2 miles north of downtown, offers a haven from tough neighborhoods. In San Jose Unifieds new offer, DCP objects to the decentralized layout of the new location and the amount of space offered. Parents fear the more dangerous neighborhood. The proposed move is part of a multipiece puzzle that would have three other charter schools share space with district middle schools, centralize independent-study programs, move a county special education program to the Hester campus, and pave part of that schools field for a parking lot for the districts center that serves incoming families. By law, school districts must offer space to charter schools, even though those schools operate independently. San Jose Unified insists that the move benefits not only the entire district, but DCP as well, and that the district is responding to the charter schools request for improved facilities so it could expand college-prep classes, a discussion about which DCP says did not happen. District officials believe they may be liable if they dont provide DCP with a campus comparable to other high schools. And, they say, the new location better serves students. If a school called Downtown College Prep cant succeed downtown, said Superintendent Vincent Matthews, referring to the proposed location, that would be a problem for the district. He also denied that the San Jose High area is unsafe and said hed like DCP to work cooperatively with mainstream district schools to improve education for both. Since last summer, San Jose Unified and DCP had been discussing where to house DCPs sister middle school. District officials say those talks included the future of the high school, whose lease at Hester expires this year. But Andaluz said the proposed move was sprung on her in October, with no warning. Shes so insistent about staying at Hester that shes sent a letter saying DCP will accept the campus without any improvements. Both sides will air their views Thursday, when the San Jose Unified school board meets to discuss the multiple campus moves. The board will hear public comment on the proposed site changes but is unlikely to make a decision for weeks, if not months, while leases are worked out. Moving to a site across from San Jose High is bad news, students say. Theres a lot of drama there, said sophomore Javier Garcia Mendoza, who cited fighting and drug dealing and said hes been jumped in the area. A lot of people know each other and dont like each other. Hilda Magana, mother of a ninth-grader, said of the proposal: I am scared to death. Theresa Flores, mother of a DCP senior, doesnt understand the rationale for moving sites. Theyre telling us its not adequate, but its worked for us for 10 years. The district has offered to move DCP high school to what they call an equivalent site next to the districts Family Early Learning Center. The offer includes 18 newer classrooms, two multipurpose rooms, a gym, and the possibility of sharing spaces like science labs with San Jose High, across the street -- which Matthews said could benefit DCP students. Andaluz disputed the characterization of the districts proposed site. Its a major step backward. Its a series of portables stacked up like Saltine crackers, with no common space. And, she said, theres little space for students to circulate and mingle. Technically, the district has offered DCP just 11,000 square feet, less than one-quarter of the space it currently has -- state law requires only that districts offer accommodations for district students, and three-fifths of DCP high school students come from outside San Jose Unified. But Matthews said that up to 38,000 square feet is available, if the school wants to lease it, at additional cost. The initial offer only looks at the bare minimum. If they want to buy more, we can make it available, he said. A move would displace DCP middle school, which both Andaluz and the district agree should move to space on Hoover Middle School campus in the Rose Garden neighborhood. Another charter, the new ACE middle school, could be housed at Burnett Middle, near Japantown, a location that satisfies ACE Executive Director Greg Lippman. We have absolutely nothing to complain about being looped into conversations, he said. But DCP high schools request for additional space could then force out another charter school -- provoking more fury. Sunrise Middle School could be relocated to South San Jose. The district already moved the 150-student Sunrise last year, after it had signed a lease for another site, and now could relocate the school again, far from the homes of its current low-income students. Sunrise Director Teresa Robinson said she was kept in the dark about the plans, which she discovered Monday only by deciphering Thursdays board agenda. It lists closed-session discussion about moving Sunrise to Assessor Parcel Number 694-19-012, which is Allen at Steinbeck School in South San Jose. Similarly, she said, last fall, We were never notified they were going to move DCP here. Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775. Follow her at Twitter/noguchionk12.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 18:11:05 +0000
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