I was pleased with the hearing for our proposed charter school, ISPY, the Innovatory School for Professional Youth, at last night’s School Board meeting.
While I find it ludicrous that a School Board attempts to consider support of a document that has not been made available to the public, it didn't seem anyone had much to say anyway.
We shared about our program. Aside from my admittedly combative opening remarks, I feel we represented ISPY well.
I think it is important for the public to know that the School District is electing to not work with us. I told Supt. Dave LaRose that privately, and he shared that he was not impressed with my comments.
He thought they implied the District wasn't reviewing the petition in a fair and compliant manner. I am sure they will follow the law.
However, one of the five criteria is that the petitioners are likely to succeed.
I don't see how a review committee can determine this without meeting with our leadership team (as most districts do). It is clear to us, and has been for some time, that the Board and District staff have no interest in approving our petition.
That being said, it will be hard for them to give legal reasons why they won't when we have addressed all of the concerns they had originally.
They can't very well make up new reasons. Our goal last night was for the public to learn more about ISPY.
For those in attendance and even certain Board members, I think we succeeded.
As for David Mielke,the Teachers Union President, his comments were the same as last time. His fear of CCUSD losing money is valid, although to a much smaller degree than he knows. Yet again, it is not legal cause to deny.
His claim that CCUSD is meeting the needs of our target population is unfounded. Sure, programs exist. But they are not clearly successful. The programs are quite different than what ISPY will offer.
Lastly, his concern about the blended learning model comes from a place of ignorance. Mr. Mielke was doing his job as a union leader.
As the great-granddaughter of the man responsible for creating the first ever U.S. labor union, I support him.
From where I sit, he seems to be a passionate educator whose pedagogies are likely very much in line with my own.
Ms. Jacobs and her professional partner Florina Rodov, co-founders of the school, may be contacted at ispycharter@gmail.com
