A lot is happening. June 1st is our deadline for bringing in as many new students as possible. Our goal is still the same and time is running out. However the next board meeting is just as if not more important. We need as many parents to attend as possible.
Not everyone needs to talk. Just showing up is powerful enough because it shows how many people this consolidation affects. So please try to be there.
In all honesty, I'm not sure if getting the numbers up it's going to be enough to save CHEP. I believe their goal is to close it and showing declining numbers is just a pretense. My reasoning is this.
They say that the numbers have been dropping for 7 years. But in that time they have done nothing to try to change it. It’s now common knowledge that CHEP used to be a growing program. But about ten years ago it was growing so fast that the local school districts began to complain. They were losing students and with them money. So under pressure the Administration made a rule that CHEP could no longer promote because it was seen as competing with other public schools.
Since that time enrollment has been steadily dropping. As students graduate there are less students to replace them. You can’t enroll if you don’t know about it. The only way we have been getting new students is by word of mouth, parent to parent.
The numbers don’t show the complete story. Only the effect but not the cause. If we want to save the program then you have to find the cause and fix it. But that is not their goal. If they do nothing to change things then the numbers show that the program will continue to shrink ‘till it’s unsustainable. They know this yet rather than fix it they instead close sites which will speed up the process of decline.
Local school districts do not like alternative education. They are losing more students to charters than they ever did before because students don’t need to get permission to transfer in order to go to a charter. I was once agains charter too but the fact is that parents are not happy with public school offerings. There is a need for alternatives and CHEP is one of the best options.
I believe CHEP is the solution public school has been looking for. But Local school districts continue to put political pressure on the administration. They have little power to stop the charters but not CHEP. That is low hanging fruit.
It’s against the rules to close a school without going before the board. But they don’t have to, if they are just consolidating resources. So that’s what they are doing. They are closing schools but not in the literal legal sense. It’s a loophole.
I believe that when they said they were giving us another year to grow the numbers they were flat out lying. They knew that it would take at least a year of work, renovating the new site in Tustin, before they were ready to close the sites. So while they pretended to be waiting they went ahead with plans. Moving resources, renovating spaces, laying off teachers and staff. All the while doing everything they could to stall our efforts to promote.
CHEP is a great program, and we have proven that we can grow if we promote. But they don’t care. Because that was never the problem to begin with. And that is why the meeting on June 12th is so important. Please come if you can.
OCDE main office
200 Kalmus Dr,
Costa Mesa, CA
92626