Olive Grove Charter School submitted an appeal to the California Board of Education in a bid to keep four of its campuses open. The Olive Grove team will travel to Sacramento for a hearing before the board in early July.
The appeal is the latest trial for the charter school program, which the Los Olivos School Board voted to dramatically downsize almost a year ago. Olive Grove staff drew up a modified charter petition to keep campuses in Santa Maria, Lompoc, Morro Bay, and Santa Barbara open by having the Cuyama Unified School District oversee the program.
School staff said the petition was blocked by the threat of litigation from Santa Barbara Unified School District over the location of one of its campuses. The Santa Barbara County Board of Education chose not to overturn Cuyama’s denial of the petition, passing the buck up to Sacramento.
The state’s appeal process will look at the petition “from the ground up,” said Colin Miller with the California Charter Schools Association, rather than taking up the narrower legal issue of whether earlier denials were legally sound.
Susanne Coie, a consultant for the Olive Grove team, said that the petition will first be considered by the California Department of Education’s staff. They will then make a recommendation to the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools. Coie said the advisory commission will “convene and grill” the Olive Grove team in the second week of June.
The commission, in turn, will add their recommendation to the one made by department staff. The board will then consider the two recommendations and hear the Olive Grove team’s case in Sacramento on July 8 and 9.
This article appears in Apr 23-30, 2015.