Summit Public Schools, the nonprofit that operates 11 charter high schools, including Summit Prep and Everest in Redwood City, was awarded a $10 million grant recently to open another school, Summit Elevate, in Oakland.
Summit joins two California high schools and seven schools nationwide in beating out some 700 entries in the XQ Super School Project to “re-imagine” high school. The competition was organized by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late Steve Jobs, according to EdSource,org, a nonprofit journalism website.
“I feel very humble,” Summit CEO Diane Tavenner told EdSource. “I feel very fortunate that we are able to do the work we believe in and are passionate about.”
Using feedback from the Oakland community and Summit’s network of schools, Summit Elevate will focus on helping students “better understand the workplace and career paths open to them,” according to a statement.
Ms. Tavenner was part of the team that opened Summit Prep in 2003 and Everest in 2009 — Everest with a state charter, given the strong opposition from the administration of the Sequoia Union High School District.
Summit Prep was originally chartered by a school district in Tuolumne, and the Sequoia district renewed it when the charter expired in 2005. (Summit comes before the district board on Sept. 28 with a petition to renew its charter for another term.)
The two schools routinely report that more than 90 percent of graduates are accepted into four-year colleges and universities.
