First charter school in BCSD’s borders to begin enrollment
The first charter school to operate within the boundaries of the Bakersfield City School District will start enrolling students in January for the academic year that begins in the fall.
The new Central Academy of Arts and Technology is expected to open in the downtown Bakersfield area — an exact site isn’t finalized — for students in transitional kindergarten through twelfth grade.
“A big piece of our mission is to bring a high-quality school of choice to areas of Bakersfield with historically low student achievement,” said Joanna Kendrick, executive director of LinkEd Public Schools. “So our target location is within the Bakersfield City School District, which is where we’re opening the school. We’re offering a small school setting, a safe school, a focus on college prep academics, and a learning environment that is inspirational and uplifting to students.”
The school’s focus for enrollment, she said, is diversity and opening doors for students of all races, abilities and those for whom English is not their native language.
But the Dolores Huerta Foundation has claimed the school isn’t equipped to provide such students with a satisfactory education, and noted that BCSD’s board and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools initially denied the charter proposal in 2022.
Central Academy of Arts and Technology proponents appealed to the Kern County Board of Education. During the appeal process, DHF reported that KCSOS produced a report citing multiple concerns about the charter school’s education plan and called for the board to stand by the original decision.
The foundation, in a news release, condemned the Kern County Board of Education for overturning BSCD’s decision.
“KCBE and KCSOS are responsible for ensuring all Kern County students, irrespective of the student’s race, language, nationality, or abilities, are provided with a quality and robust education,” DHF Education Policy Director Ashley de La Rosa said in the news release. “KCBE and KCSOS both know that the CAAT school cannot provide a sound education to students from low-income families, English language learners, and disabled students. KCBE and KCSOS should never have granted the CAAT petition.”
The Dolores Huerta Foundation has not responded to The Californian’s repeated requests for comment.
Kendrick, however, said the new charter is more determined than ever to fulfill its mission to give children all over Kern County a unique education that integrates arts, technology and college preparatory courses.
”I believe that they’re wrong about their assessment of our program,” Kendrick said. “They’re not educational experts. And we’re just committed to not being distracted by this last-ditch effort to try to keep, you know, a high-quality school of choice out of reach for students who need it the most.”
Kendrick noted she previously helped launch three other charter schools in the Central Valley, all of which faced opposition from the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
For its first year of operation, the charter seeks to enroll 400 students total. Specifically, from kindergarten to fifth grade, each grade would enroll 50 students. Grades six through twelve would each have 25 students. A transitional kindergarten class would have 15 spots.
“We’re just really jazzed to be part of something, a solution to some of the challenges in education. So I’m super excited. It has been our pet project for the last two years” Kendrick said.