San Jose Unified, charter battle over school site
A month before the start of the new school year, dozens of parents are still battling with the San Jose Unified School District over a location for a new K-8 charter school that the district has been reluctant to support.
The charter school, Promise Academy that will partner on curriculum with the Tech Museum of Innovation, has requested space at one of six elementary schools near downtown San Jose, where most of the lowincome students live. But the district has offered the academy room for 197 students at Allen at Steinbeck, a campus in south San Jose near the Westfield Oakridge Mall.
“I don’t think it would be possible for me to send my kid there. It’s too far.” said Lety Gomez, a San Jose mom who hopes to send her third-grade daughter to Promise for middle school. “Many of these families don’t have the means to drive their kids that far. Many are working.”
The two sides met Tuesday to discuss the latest offer, but neither side appears willing to budge.
The fight over the site of the campus is just the latest battle between San Jose Unified and the upstart academy.
Parents working with charter advocates Innovate Public Schools initially were rejected by both San Jose Unified and the Santa Clara County Board of Education in their bid for a charter school, but the California Board of Education overruled the two school boards.
The dispute ended up in court and in June a judge ruled in Promise’s favor. The district is required to provide the academy space and follow the guidelines of Prop. 39, which says charters should receive facilities that are “reasonably equivalent” to those that students would find at district schools. By the end of the month, the charter must decide whether to accept the offer.
“It’s not reasonable to require parents to do an hour round-trip commute,” said Anthony Johnson, Promise Academy’s CEO, as he walked out of the meeting Tuesday afternoon.
However, San Jose Unified superintendent Nancy Albarran argued that since Promise is offering instruction for middle-schoolers, it would be inappropriate to place them in an elementary setting as they’re requesting.
“Reasonably equivalent means middle-school desks. It means middle-school bathrooms,” she said.
Allen at Steinbeck is an elementary school but previously was a middle school and is equipped with lockers, bathrooms and outdoor play areas for older students.
Deputy superintendent Stephen McMahon was also concerned over the funds flowing out of the traditional public school system and into charters, whose attendance rates and performance fluctuate. Though these parents are asking for greater choice, “The taxpayer doesn’t pay for choice, they pay for education,” McMahon said.
The tension over public school districts and charter schools is widespread because school districts lose students and state funds but are often required to provide campuses to charters. Charter school proponents say the schools give parents alternatives to lowperforming schools in their neighborhoods.
Still parents are eager to continue fighting for Promise.
“I grew up in San Jose, I know what it’s like,” said Debesay Teklemariam, a Promise parent who sat in on the meeting. “I just want better schools.”