ICOE meeting hears Imagine School appeal
EL CENTRO – Strong arguments both for and against Imagine School of Imperial Valley’s petition to appeal the non-renewal of its charter were made during the Imperial County Office of Education Board of Trustees special meeting Wednesday.
For its part, the El Centro Elementary School District had urged the ICOE board to not grant the campus’ charter renewal on account of the Imagine’s poor academic achievement and its continued inability to meet the state’s required academic standards.
“We believe that the petitioners are unlikely demonstrably to implement their academic program,” said ECESD Superintendent Jon LeDoux during his presentation to the board. “They now are in their eighth year and they are nowhere close.”
During his presentation, Imagine School Assistant Principal Tomas Chavez cited publicly available data that suggested the campus’ student body was performing at a similar and, in some instances, higher level in comparison to local school districts.
“Imagine does meet that academic renewal criteria based on California state standards,” Chavez said.
In order to comply with state Education Code regulating charter renewals, a charter school must demonstrate that its academic standards are on par with those of the district, or districts, from which it draws its students.
The purpose of Wednesday’s special meeting was to allow both ECESD and ISIV to present their cases to the ICOE board, which will now consider granting or denying the charter renewal, or possibly not take any action, within the next two months.
Data presented by ECESD revealed Imagine School failed to match the academic achievement levels of ECESD, as well as countywide averages in both English language arts and mathematics.
Specifically, 96 percent of the ECESD’s students outperformed Imagine students in English language arts, while 100 percent of ECESD students outperformed Imagine students in mathematics.
“It shows Imagine is not meeting or matching according to the state test,” LeDoux said.
In contrast, Imagine School had presented data that demonstrated its student body is actually making greater academic progress than other local school districts.
At Imagine, 73 percent of its student body had shown significant increases in ELA aptitude, and 52 percent demonstrated significant academic progress in mathematics, Chavez said.
“We have more English learners than all the other schools, and we are outperforming them,” Chavez said. “We outperform nine out of 11 schools in the El Centro district and seven out of eight schools in Calexico.”
ECESD officials on Wednesday also cited issues with Imagine not having all of its teachers properly credentialed to teach English-language learners, its corporate structure and financial obligations that appear to cater to the interests of Imagine’s national corporation at the expense of local students.
ECESD also acknowledged that it had recently filed a complaint with the state in connection to Imagine reportedly not having all of its teachers properly credentialed to teach English-language learners, as required by law.
It had also advised the ICOE board that changes Imagine had reportedly made to its special education curriculum that were described in its appeal to ICOE were not permissible.
“This is a major revision and it is a major flaw in their appeal to you,” LeDoux said.
Seeking to address some of the district’s financial concerns, ISIV Principal Grace Jiminez provided a breakdown of its operating budget.
Jiminez stated that building lease fees comprised 36 percent of its $3.8 million budget and that such fees are comparable to others’ lease fees. She disclosed that management fees comprised about $951,000, or about 12 percent of its budget, and that about 11 percent goes to ECESD for acting as the charter school’s authorizer.
She told the ICOE board that should it decide to grant the charter’s renewal those funds would go to ICOE.
“We look forward to working with the county,” Jiminez said. “All we need to do is just sign on the dotted line.”
Both presentations on Wednesday had been preceded by nearly two hours of public comments from both supporters and detractors of the charter school.
The special meeting was held at Southwest High School’s theater, which was awash in supporters wearing yellow T-shirts and detractors in red.
“All of those yellow shirts here tonight are advertisements for a company,” said James Taylor, president of the Associated Calexico Teachers union.
Taylor also disclosed that current discussions are underway in the Brawley and El Centro elementary school districts to possibly expand dual-immersion program opportunities. Such a dual-immersion program is what distinguishes Imagine School from its counterparts and which its supporters value highly.
Imagine special education teacher Cecilia Fragoso said the detractors’ presence on Wednesday was compelled by the California Teachers Association union, which Imagine teachers are in the process of decertifying as their representative.
She also spoke out against the accusations that claim Imagine School does not provide adequate academic services for its students.
“I truly believe that they are making statements that are not grounded in facts,” Fragoso said.