We are asking the School Board of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School (PYLUSD) District to protect local students and deny the petition by the California Republic Leadership Academy (CRLA) charter school for the 2024-25 school year.

Support Community Engagement
On June 16, 2023, the first day of summer vacation for PYLUSD families, the district released its agenda for the June 20 School Board meeting, which included a link (https://bit.ly/3CbwVdp) to the 600+ page CRLA petition received in April. Why wait until summer to inform the community about the petition, when many PYL families are out of town and engagement is low?

Prioritize PYLUSD Families
At the June 20 meeting, there was a public hearing on the proposed TK-8 charter school, led by CRLA Executive Director Gary Davis. Signatures from more than 200 families interested in CRLA were presented, but when asked by Trustee Anderson about addresses, it was revealed that most of the interested families live outside district boundaries, in areas such as Burbank, Paramount, Compton, and Huntington Beach. Only 35 families live in Placentia/Yorba Linda. How can CRLA benefit the PYLUSD community when serving a majority of non-PYLUSD students?

Protect District Resources
Although the CRLA petition has not requested district space, Davis admitted there are no guarantees that CRLA won’t request use of PYLUSD school facilities by the November 1, 2023 deadline (based on provisions contained in Proposition 39). Davis also acknowledged his ties to the Orange County Classical Academy (OCCA), another charter that he helped launch. OCCA petitioned PYLUSD in April as well, requesting classroom space and use of school facilities (library space, restrooms, office space, blacktop and field space, parking spaces, etc.). (That request was never presented to the school board after a separate petition gathered more than 1,100 signatures.) Why risk losing PYL classrooms, playgrounds, and other district resources?

Assess and Share Impact
CRLA will open its first charter school in the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) this fall — using their district facilities. In that instance, a split-vote decision by the CUSD School Board led to a CRLA appeal, and the petition was then granted by the Orange County Board of Education. According to California’s Education Code, a school board can deny a charter petition if the charter has flaws or will negatively impact students, district finances, or district facilities.

A report on CRLA, put together by CUSD staff, identified both flaws and negative impacts. CUSD has also since created a charter school authorization policy that includes minimum performance criteria. Will PYLUSD staff conduct their own assessment and create a transparent policy related to charter schools?

We ask the School Board to thoroughly and transparently assess the impact on PYLUSD and vote no on CRLA.