Charter schools take time, thought

The school year is about to end, and those of you who are Charter School leaders have reason to be upset about the changes taking place in the Pleasant Valley School District, dictated by two school closures.

Your reaction was to petition for a new charter school. Camarillo, with high standardized test scores of its students in elementary and middle schools and the district's reputation for having good schools, is not the typical community where charter schools are started.

It more commonly occurs in districts where the students are performing poorly and the quality of instruction is below average.

Having worked in California public schools as a school administrator for 27 years after teaching in elementary and secondary schools, I am aware of how critical it is to take the time for thorough planning before beginning a new program.

It is unfortunate that PVSD authorities did not allow sufficient time for planning prior to the recent school closure decisions; however, it is evident that you are aggressively moving toward a charter school to open in September. Questions that all charter school planners must ask themselves are:

What is your plan to evaluate the progress of each student and the total student population?

Will that evaluation plan meet the requirements of your contract with the charter's authorizer?

For how many years will the contract be valid?

What happens if the contract is not renewed due to the charter school not meeting the goals specified in the contract?

It is natural for the organizers to be enthused about this opportunity to use public funds for their own program; however, one hopes that sufficient time will be taken before the new program opens.

This venture is too important to all the students who will be included in this program for it to be hurriedly put into action. Howard Hoover Camarillo