SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Highland High School Loses 2nd Bid for Charter Status

Teachers’ hopes of reinventing the educational system at Highland High School have been dashed for a second time, officials said Tuesday.

Supporters of a charter school there waited too long to file an appeal after the proposal was rejected in January by the Antelope Valley Union High School District board of trustees, according to the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

“Our policy is clear that the notice (of appeal) shall be filed within 30 days,” said Jim Parker of the county education office. The Highland High charter committee filed the appeal last week.

Parker said the committee working toward charter status will be notified that its appeal will not be considered.

Parker said attorneys reviewed the county’s policies on charter appeals after receiving the submission last week but “couldn’t find any reason to waive (the) policy.”

“We have a black-and-white policy,” Parker said. “We made our policies known. We sent a letter out to all the superintendents back around November. All the districts should have been notified.”

Teachers at Highland High began working more than a year ago toward gaining charter school status. Such a school would be better able to create lifelong learners out of students and better prepare them for the 21st Century than a traditional campus, boosters said.

In January, the high school district board rejected the proposal, saying it was too vague.

Officials said the committee will not abandon its efforts to create a charter school.

“We’re pretty optimistic anyway,” said Glen Horst, head of the charter committee and an English teacher at Highland High. Horst said the commitment to educational reform remains.

The 1992 law that allows for the creation of 100 charter schools in the state was intended as one method of achieving the decade-long effort toward educational reform. Charter schools are not bound by the dictates of the extensive education code. To date, 53 charters have been approved.

The worst case, Horst said, would require the committee to again collect signatures from the Highland High teaching staff in support of the charter and resubmit the proposal to the school board.

“We’ve had such encouragement and support,” Horst said. “We could build one heck of a facility for education.”