School’s Out Too Early for 420 Kids on 2 Charter Campuses

The Los Angeles County Board of Education shut down two charter campuses Friday, leaving 420 students scrambling to find new schools.

For nearly 100 students at the Progressive Education Entrepreneurial Charter Schools in Inglewood and South Los Angeles, it is the second time in three months they have had to find a new campus.

“Here we go again,” said parent Angie Garcia, who sighed as she watched several students and parents cry in the main office Friday morning. She transferred her son to the Inglewood campus after his former charter school, two blocks away, abruptly closed in August.

The county board earlier this week decided to close the two campuses because of fiscal problems, among other things.

Such controversies are breeding “mistrust of the whole charter school movement among parents,” said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy and co-director of Policy Analysis of California Education, headquartered at the University of California and Stanford University.

“When the media and parents see that charter schools are collapsing all around them, it’s just going to undercut the vitality of the charter movement,” he said.

The 12-year-old charter school program continues to battle funding, facilities and oversight issues, acknowledged Caprice Young, president of the nonprofit California Charter Schools Assn., which represents the state’s 537 publicly financed but privately run charter schools.

But Young said more parents are fighting for charters because they believe in the concept. She added that 78 charter schools have opened in the last few months in California.

Still, Trina Muhammad, who took a job as a teaching assistant at the Progressive Education Entrepreneurial Charter School in Inglewood after serving as director of the now-defunct charter campus the Village, also in Inglewood, wiped away tears with toilet paper as she struggled to explain her situation.

“It’s hard. It’s hard,” she said. “Three months ago, I was sitting in this same position. It’s not fair, it’s not.”

James Taylor, whose son, Darien, 12, attended the Progressive Education Entrepreneurial Charter School in Inglewood, said: “They told us at the last minute. What are we going to do? It’s October, and now we’ve got to find a new school.”

This is the second time this has happened to Taylor, who transferred his son from the Village.

He said does not want to enroll Darien in a regular public school because he believes they are overcrowded and dangerous.

In August, the California Charter Academy, which was not affiliated with Young’s group, became the largest operator to dissolve because of fiscal turmoil, pressure from new state laws and an investigation by the state Department of Education. The group ran nearly 60 charter campuses, including the Village.

Such situations are becoming a challenge for parents who are increasingly selecting charter campuses as an alternative to public schools. Some education leaders say the recent school closures are a sign of the instability of the movement.

The Los Angeles County Board of Education revoked the Progressive Education Entrepreneurial Charter Schools’ charter during Tuesday’s meeting mainly because the year-old school grew unexpectedly, said Rick de la Torre, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

“The school must close as of today,” he said. “It was too many students, too fast.”

Last year, the sixth- through 10th-grade school enrolled nearly 100 students at its South Los Angeles campus. This year, it expanded to more than 400 students, opening the Inglewood site.

Under state rules, public campuses including charters are funded based on the number of students they enrolled the previous year, said Cindy Chan, education fiscal services administrator for the California Department of Education.

Start-up charters receive extra money, she said, but the law does not allow that for existing charter schools.

“It’s a cash flow issue for them,” she said. “It has been a struggle, but there is nothing for us to do to give them that extra funding.”

The county education board also criticized the school for other management issues, including failing to provide workers’ compensation insurance last year, failing to hire a fiscal services manager and not submitting required paperwork for hiring and special education issues.

Young said that the financing issue is serious and that some charters have closed because of it. In response, her organization recently created a loan program to help growing charters. So far, 22 charter schools across the state have split $6 million to cover rapid enrollment. She said her organization is trying to press the state Legislature to change the funding rule because charters often expand faster than regular public campuses.

“In some ways, it’s survival of the fittest,” Young said. “It’s just unfortunate that the survival of the fittest often means who is most capable of dealing with bureaucratic idiosyncrasy.”

Principal Doris Sims, a former Cal State Northridge professor, opened the Progressive Education Entrepreneurial Charter Schools last year to teach business skills to mostly at-risk middle and high school students.

Word spread in the community, and parents “just started coming,” Sims said. She decided to open the second site in a community center across from Inglewood High School. When the Village closed, she said, even more parents began asking if she had room for their children.

It has been a learning process, Sims said Friday, sitting at a two-legged table she used as her desk. Nobody guided her through the rules and regulations, she said, but she tried to follow them.

“How do we handle special education? How do we handle expulsions? How do we handle finances?” she said. “This is a new concept.”

As she spoke, a staff member knocked on the door. Two students appeared with tears in their eyes. “What’s the matter?” Sims asked.

“I don’t want this school to close,” said Charlecia Cox, 12, who sobbed as Sims hugged her and replied: “I know. It’s going to be all right.”

Her friend Tekeya Jones, 13, who had transferred from the Village, said, “Everybody is just trying to break us down. It’s wrong for them to try and close our school down.”

Upstairs, lessons continued. Teachers on the third floor conducted three classes in one large recreational room with spotted brown carpet and folding chairs. Muhammad talked to some ninth- and 10th-grade students, asking how they felt about their school’s being closed.

“They keep telling us to stay in school, then they kick us out,” said Aaron Crymes, 15.

Her students wrote comments about the campus, which Muhammad read aloud:

“If I have to move, I guess my life will be over,” one wrote.

“I learned things I never knew,” wrote another.

Just months ago, Marquise Foster, 13, was worrying about finding a new school. Now, it’s happening all over again. “This,” he said, “was one of our last options.”