Sequoia district to build school in East Palo Alto Sequoia district to build school in East Palo Alto (May 19, 2004)

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

East Palo Alto High School -- a three-year-old charter high school with 240 students and located on a former middle school campus in Menlo Park -- will move in the summer of 2005 to a new high school building in East Palo Alto if current plans proceed as expected.

A joint powers agreement may be agreed to by the end of July between the Sequoia Union High School District, the Ravenswood City School District and Aspire Public Schools, the nonprofit group that runs the school.

Trustees from both school districts like the plan, said Sequoia superintendent Patrick Gemma in an interview. "I think this is going to be a win-win-win," he said.

"I think that everybody agrees with the idea," said Don Shalvey, Aspire's CEO. "I don't think it's an extraordinarily difficult JPA to work through."

The arrangement appears to be an artful solution to what seemed a complicated problem.

Mutual benefits

East Palo Alto High School received its charter from Ravenswood, an elementary school district, at a time when elementary school districts were allowed to sponsor high schools. State law now requires that they be sponsored by their local high school districts.

State law, however, does allow an elementary school district to charter a high school if the charter includes an elementary school, said Ravenswood superintendent Floyd Gonella. When East Palo Alto High School's charter expires in 2005, Ravenswood will offer Aspire Public Schools a new charter for grades K-12, Mr. Gonella said.

East Palo Alto Charter School — a 6-year-old K-8 school on Runnymede Street—will also be the site of the new high school, Mr. Shalvey told the Almanac. Aspire took over operation of the K-8 school last year. The high school may include classrooms for middle school grades, Mr. Shalvey said.

Aspire also has an unused charter for an elementary school that could open in the former home of the high school at Menlo Oaks School on Pope Street in Menlo Park, Mr. Shalvey said.

Both K-5 schools would have curriculums "very much integrated" with that of the new middle and high schools, which would help address the problem of East Palo Alto ninth-graders being unprepared to excel at high school work, Mr. Shalvey said. "It's like an iceberg," he said. "You have to build mass at the bottom before it breaks through the surface."

Sequoia plans to spend $5 million to $6 million to construct a school building for East Palo Alto High School, said Mr. Gemma. By building a school, Sequoia fulfills its obligations to provide facilities.

State Proposition 39, passed by voters in 2000, requires school districts that pass construction bond measures to provide facilities for charter schools that serve district students.

To pass, a Proposition 39 measure needs only a 55 percent majority rather than the tougher two-thirds majority. In exchange for the lower threshold, school districts must specify how the money will be spent and establish an oversight committee to monitor the spending. Sequoia district voters approved an $88 million bond in November 2002.

The high school will occupy the building rent-free. Sequoia would own the portion of the building used for the high school and lease the land from the Ravenswood district, while Ravenswood would lease space from Sequoia for middle-school classrooms, if needed.

"East Palo Alto High School gets a building, Ravenswood gets a continuous income, and the Sequoia district (fulfills) its Proposition 39 obligations" at a reasonable expense, said Mr. Gemma.

"We think it's smart education to provide a necessary small school for a community and kids," said Ed LaVigne, an assistant superintendent at Sequoia.

Sequoia and Ravenswood may draft a memo of understanding in which Sequoia would provide assistance to East Palo Alto High in staff and curriculum development, Mr. Gemma said.

Sequoia and charter schools

The Sequoia district spends about $7,100 for each of the approximately 7,858 students in the district.

Each charter school student is eligible for a portion of that money -- from $5,400 to $5,700 -- payable by the Sequoia district to the charter schools. The exact amount will depend on the fate of AB 1366, a bill authored by Assemblyman Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto.

The bill passed last year, but was vetoed by then-Gov. Gray Davis. It required a district like Sequoia to pay only 70 percent of its obligation after 2006, with the state picking up the other 30 percent. If the bill doesn't pass this year, Sequoia and districts like it may have to pay 100 percent.

It will be expensive in either case, so Sequoia has set aside about $800,000 for charter school students, said assistant superintendent LaVigne.

East Palo Alto High School's need for facilities first came up in a "very amicable" conversation initiated by Mr. Shalvey about a year ago, Mr. Gemma said. The men knew each other since before Mr. Gemma became Sequoia's superintendent, Mr. Shalvey said, adding that he was familiar with Mr. Gemma's previous involvement with charter schools.

"Pat, I think, sees the value of small schools of choice, especially in East Palo Alto," Mr. Shalvey said.

Sequoia's student population is projected to rise 3 percent -- about 235 students -- by the 2005-06 school year, and the Sequoia district's traditional high schools are at capacity, Mr. Gemma said. A new housing development going in at Pete's Harbor in Redwood City could add more students.

Asked whether charter schools and the district's plan to build a three-year high school were part of a strategy for the future, Mr. Gemma acknowledged that they were and said that no new comprehensive high schools would be built. "We're going to need to find ways to have smaller sites throughout the district's boundaries," Mr. Gemma said.

Charter schools are exempt from most state laws governing school districts so as to encourage innovation aimed at improving student learning, advancing teaching methods and accountability, and stimulating competition in the public school arena.

The district has three other charter high schools inside its boundaries. Summit Prep in Redwood City and San Carlos High School in San Carlos opened their doors in September. Both of their charters expire in June 2006 and they will likely petition Sequoia for sponsorship.

Tiny Aurora High School, after five challenging years of operation, may soon close it doors after an April decision by the Sequoia school board to reject Aurora's petition for a new charter. The district concluded that Aurora's education program was unsound and that it wasn't financially viable. Aurora is appealing to the county board of education for a charter.

About EPAHS

Of East Palo Alto High School's 240 students, 80 percent are on a free-or-reduced-lunch program. Sixty-six percent of the students do not have a parent who is a high-school graduate and most don't have a sibling who's gone to college, Mr. Shalvey said.

The Stanford University School of Education is a partner with the school, providing assistance with curriculum and staff development. The school also serves as a training site for teachers in the Stanford Teacher Education Program.

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