Santiago Fights to Keep Charter

Supporters of an Orange charter school where a teacher was arrested on suspicion of having sex with her students rallied Thursday to protest a possible takeover of the campus by the school district.

An overflow crowd of more than 300 students, parents and teachers from Santiago Middle School packed the Orange Unified School District board meeting to plead their case.

“No one at the school could have seen this coming,” Henry Hanson, a Santiago music teacher, told the board.

“Please do not take away the charter from one of our finest schools.”

District officials began investigating the school after the Jan. 4 arrest of Sarah Bench-Salorio, a 28-year-old Santiago teacher, on suspicion of having had sex with two students, both 13.

Last week, Bench-Salorio pleaded not guilty to 28 counts of lewd conduct. If convicted, she faces up to 46 years in prison. She is in jail pending $500,000 bail.

Two days after the arrest, the district’s seven-member board ordered Supt. Robert French to look into whether the Santiago staff had failed to protect the students and to recommend whether the school’s charter should be revoked.

Charter schools, which often have specialized curricula, are publicly funded. They operate largely independently from district oversight, but must be licensed by a school district or the state.

Scores of Santiago supporters told the Orange school board that if the campus’ charter was revoked, the school would lose its small class sizes and special academic programs.

Without its charter status, the campus would revert to a regular school overseen by Orange Unified and subject to districtwide curricula.

Currently, a 12-member board comprising Santiago parents and teachers governs the school.

Supt. French was expected to submit a report to the board late Thursday evening.

In a letter sent to Santiago officials last week, French said he believed the school had been warned about Bench-Salorio before her arrest.

French did not elaborate on the nature of those concerns or why the district had them in the letter.

However, he concluded that “concerns exist as to [Santiago’s] ability to protect its students from harm” and that district officials “believe that continuation of the program under the charter school administration poses an imminent threat to the health and safety of its students.”

Santiago supporters deny that the school is unsafe and accuse the district of generalizing from a single incident.

Santiago Principal Mary Henry said in a letter delivered to the board at Thursday’s meeting that the school was willing to adopt any measures the district proposed if it prevented the loss of the charter.

Santiago, which began as a regular Orange Unified campus, became the county’s first charter school in 1995.

It serves about 1,100 students in grades seven and eight.

Thursday’s board meeting was the first of three that the district scheduled to take public comments on the matter.

The next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1.

The final meeting will be Feb. 10, when the board votes whether to revoke Santiago’s charter license.