Santa Ana Schools to Investigate Charter Status

With an eye toward possibly following suit, the Santa Ana school board will hear a report tonight on a bill that would pave the way for Capistrano schools to gain districtwide charter status.

Mike Kilbourn, a lobbyist for the Orange County Department of Education, helped write Senate Bill 1705 which would allow the Capistrano Unified School District to apply for districtwide charter status. He says Santa Ana is the only other Orange county district that has expressed interest in becoming a charter district and he will field questions from trustees at the regular board meeting.

That legislation would enable Capistrano to become the first district to apply for charter district status, granting it freedom from many state regulations, including those that govern spending, construction and record-keeping.

“I will go through what the bill does, why we need a bill and why it takes legislation,” Kilbourn said. The legislation, he said, would free the district from rules governing everything from purchasing to textbook selection. But the district still would come under accountability and assessment laws, he said.

Both Capistrano and Santa Ana want the same thing, though they differ in many ways, according to John Palacio, Santa Ana’s school board president.

“We have a different student population, different communities, but what we have that is similar is that we’re burdened with state regulations that are unwieldy and expensive,” Palacio said.

Palacio said board members will look at all options allowing the district to design courses and campuses with minimal state regulation.

“The districtwide charter may be able to provide the district with the opportunity to meet state standards while determining how to best use its resources,” Palacio said. “The state of California or Department of Education addresses issues with ‘one size fits all,’ without looking at the districts as individuals.”

Trustee Rosemarie Avila said she has some doubts and many questions she wants answered about charter districts. Although she voted to grant charter status to the Orange County High School of the Arts this year, she generally opposes charter schools because they lack elected representatives.