Students, parents, and teachers of the Olive Grove Charter School program finally have the answer they were looking for. After months of agonizing decisions made by local school boards that pointed the program toward closure, persistence to keep the schools open paid off.
The California State Board of Education voted to grant Olive Grove Charter School’s appeal on July 9. The appeal will keep Olive Grove resource centers in Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, and Morro Bay open under a new charter. It also lays the groundwork for services to be provided to Cuyama Unified School District and for the school to reach out to students left behind at the now-shuttered charter program under the Los Olivos School District (LOSD).
The successful appeal is a major victory for Olive Grove, which has fought to stay alive since LOSD opted to dramatically downsize the program in June of 2013. Rich Rochelle, Olive Grove’s school board president, struck a joyous note in an email to the Sun.
“All of us, returning students and their families, teachers, staff, and school board members at Olive Grove Charter, are extremely elated to have successfully completed the process by which our school has final approval from the California Department of Education and the California State Board of Education,” he wrote.
In Sacramento, the State Board of Education was largely receptive to the appeal, heeding the recommendation of the Advisory Council on Charter Schools that they approve the revised charter. Board member Niki Sandoval, who also serves as education director for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians and lectures at her alma matter of UCSB, asked if services would be provided in Cuyama.
“Correct,” replied Olive Grove teacher Laura Mudge. Students in Cuyama would be reached at their level of need, first through home visits and independent study, which was the case when Olive Grove first expanded into Santa Barbara.
Board member Bruce Holaday expressed broad support for the petition and praised the Olive Grove program.
“This group is trying to be there for these students in this county in various different ways,” he said.
Board member Patricia Ann Rucker was a little less sanguine. “This vote is not going to be a message to districts that they’re bullying charter schools,” she said pointedly. Then she expressed qualified support, calling the Olive Grove team’s reading of Educational Code “a very creative way to squeeze a MAC truck through the eye of a needle.”
This article appears in Jul 16-23, 2015.
