Aurora High School plans appeal to county to avoid shut-down Aurora High School plans appeal to county to avoid shut-down (May 05, 2004)

** Offer of one-year charter went nowhere.

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

If tenacity says anything about character, Aurora High School of Redwood City has character to spare. In its five years of existence, the little charter high school with 84 students has persevered despite many setbacks.

Aurora has held classes in a city park because it lacked a building. For two years, the teachers held forth in a condemned warehouse. Aurora found a decent building last year only after winning a lawsuit brought against them by their local high school district.

Now, with its charter about to expire and its current sponsor -- the Redwood City Elementary School District -- barred by law from agreeing to another five-year charter, Aurora faces a daunting test: find a new sponsor before June 30 or close its doors for good.

The obvious choice -- the Sequoia Union High School District -- made its position clear at the April 28 school board meeting, when the five-member board voted 4-1 to deny a five-year charter. Trustee Olivia Martinez, who opposed the denial, tried but failed to get a vote on a two-year charter.

"It was just a bad match," said trustee Gordon Lewin in an interview. The board and Aurora perceived the situation differently, he said, adding that the board "did not feel (the school) could be turned around."

The decision came after Aurora considered, then rejected, an earlier offer of a one-year charter. The board had voted 3-2 to make the offer despite a scathing evaluation of Aurora delivered in March by district superintendent Patrick Gemma, who wanted the board to reject the school's petition outright.

The report, based on several meetings and a three-hour school visit by district officials, called Aurora's education program "unsound" and said the school would be unlikely to meet its stated goals. "This was a hard report to write," Mr. Gemma said in introducing it. "The dedication and the sincerity of the staff ... that keep that school going is amazing."

Aurora responded with a point-by-point refutation of the district report, a document Aurora board president Mark White called "not within shouting distance of being fair."

The offer of an abbreviated charter was a non-starter. "We were always hopeful but far from confident," Mr. White told the Almanac. "Who wants to send their child to a school that only has a one-year life expectancy?"

Sequoia's one-year offer had strings attached, including a balanced budget with a 5 percent reserve, a new administrator, teachers with full rather than emergency credentials, verified student attendance and course guidelines for core subjects.

"We had serious problems and concerns with those (criteria). I think some of them are impossible to meet," Mr. White said. Emergency teaching credentials "are perfectly valid credentials," he added. "We would have to fire all but one of our current core teachers."

And Sequoia was not prepared to oversee the effort, said Mr. Lewin. He recalled Mr. Gemma's explaining that Sequoia -- with some 7,600 students enrolled -- has its hands full and that Aurora would have to improve itself on its own.

Rights to appeal

Aurora can ask the San Mateo County Board of Education for a charter and plans to do so, Mr. White said. If the county rejects them, Aurora can then ask the state Board of Education.

If either board grants a charter, the Sequoia district would have to pay about $5,400 for each Aurora student residing in the district, said Mr. Lewin.

Statewide, about 4 percent of charter schools have closed, usually because of trouble attracting students and financial difficulties, said Gary Larson, spokesman for the California Charter Schools Association.

Mr. Larson praised Aurora's tenacity. "There are certainly some challenges that the trailblazers of the charter school movement have faced," he said.

As for Sequoia, Mr. Larson called it "a school district that has succeeded in undermining something that was working for many students," particularly those in need of a small-school environment in an area where large schools predominate.

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