Second in a series
Re “Here Is the Next Charter Candidate for Culver City”
Soon enough, Dr. Matt Wunder, Executive Director of the DaVinci charter school network in Hawthorne that proposes opening a unique charter high school here in 2013, uttered the words interested School District observers have been awaitingm since yesterday:
“We are not trying to encroach,” he told the newspaper. “We are not trying to steal enrollment. We are just trying to serve the kids we think we can do well – to and through college for less money and less time, making it a little more engaging.”
Here was the way the South Bay Daily Breeze characterized the DaVinci plan in yesterday’s edition:
“Under the proposal, students would attend public high school and college simultaneously on the campus of Antioch University. They'd finish high school in five years instead of four, but on graduation day would receive not one, but two pieces of paper: a high school diploma and an associate of arts degree.” “As people know,” said Dr. Wunder, a quarter-century veteran of the Westside and South Bay, “the major obstacles for a charter school to exist are facilities and authorization – a place to be.”
In Culver City, authorization is the heaviest subject on the minds of School District decision-makers.
Again, the educator who helped found the DaVinci network repeated an earlier statement.
“We are not trying to irritate anybody or be confrontational,” he said. “We focus on what we think is in the best interests of the kids.”
Came now the most pivotal question.
Dr. Wunder, who expressed his fondness for retired Supt. Patti Jaffe, was asked if it were possible to enter Culver City via the Antioch portal without requiring School District approval – since Culver City school boards have rejected all previous charter applications.
“There are alternative authorization pathways,” he said.
“I am not trying to poke anybody in the eye, particularly Culver City.
“Our plan,” Dr. Wunder added, significantly, “was not to approach them for authorization.”
