CHARTER SCHOOL BACKERS FEAR LOSING FOUR LEADERS

Administrators face loss of prime health benefits if they stay at Gompers

Advocates of a popular southeast San Diego charter school, Gompers Preparatory Academy, say a San Diego Unified proposal would force the charter school’s founding leaders to make a difficult choice: stay at Gompers and lose the district’s prime health benefits, or be reassigned to a district school.

Some Gompers supporters worry the choice could cause the administrators to leave the 15-yearold charter school and jeopardize the school’s stability and success in a neighborhood that they say needs a quality school.

“District E in southeast San Diego has a history of revolving instability (and) leadership, which is an example of why it’s important to have a stable, quality leadership in place, which drives success,” said Ellen Nash, chair of the Black American Political Association of California San Diego chapter.

Gompers serves about 1,300 students in middle and high school grades; 89 percent of its students are Latino and 6 percent are Black. About 84 percent of students are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

Last year, the school had a 98 percent graduation rate, and all its graduates qualified for admission to the University of California and

California State University.

District officials say that their proposal would make Gompers consistent with all the other charter schools the district oversees, and that Gompers could choose to offer its founding leaders the same health benefits the district provides.

Gompers used to be a traditional public school before it was converted to a charter school. Charter schools are public schools run independently of school districts, although districts authorize them to run.

Gompers was a troubled, lowperforming, district-run school in 2005, when community members successfully organized to convert it into a public charter school.

Although Gompers became independent of San Diego Unified, at the time of its founding the district lent five of its administrators to the charter school, including Vincent Riveroll, who became the school’s founding principal.

Several supporters credit Riveroll with turning the school culture and academics around.

In recent years, however, the school has been rocked by teacher turnover, a teacher unionization effort that has polarized the campus, and the school’s decision last year to lay off more than a third of its teachers, a decision the school later revoked.

Riveroll and three other Gompers administrators remain at the school on loan. Gompers reimburs