To: Dr. John E. Deasy, Sumperintendent of Schools, Monica Garcia, Board President LAUSD Board of Education, Sean Jernigan, Proposition 39 Prog. Man. Charters Schools Division, Steven Zimmer, Board Member LAUSD Board of Education, and Jose C...
Award reasonably equivalent facilities to Goethe International Charter School
Your recent decision to award Goethe International Charter School only ten of the sixteen classrooms requested for the upcoming school year is contrary to the spirit and letter of the law as well as destructive to our community's successful efforts to create a high achieving school in our neighborhood. Genuinely, we admire your energetic efforts over the last year to change the very culture of the District, but your decision to reduce the number of our classrooms is out of step with that honorable campaign.
More than 200 students applied for 72 Kindergarten spots for this fall. Now, at this late date, these Kindergarteners face the very real prospect of not being able to matriculate. Worse, we may be forced by your actions to kick students out of a school with an API score above 900; a school that has exemplified the highest standard of financial discipline and responsibility; a school that is pioneering for all students of Los Angeles an innovative educational model pairing the implementation of the International Baccalaureate curriculum with German English dual immersion model. You are taking away students' rights of choice. We have diligently put aside money to use to secure a long term private facility so that we can step out of the Prop 39 program. That money will evaporate if we have to use it to pay for a short-term facility solution for this coming fall, forcing us to rely on Prop 39 for the foreseeable future.
We have sought since December, 2011, to find a solution to this disagreement. But the District has refused to reconsider its position. We ask you, now, before an entire school year is lost, to award Goethe sixteen classrooms plus reasonably equivalent non teaching space.
Thank you for your consideration, and for your work on behalf of all the students of Los Angeles.
More than 200 students applied for 72 Kindergarten spots for this fall. Now, at this late date, these Kindergarteners face the very real prospect of not being able to matriculate. Worse, we may be forced by your actions to kick students out of a school with an API score above 900; a school that has exemplified the highest standard of financial discipline and responsibility; a school that is pioneering for all students of Los Angeles an innovative educational model pairing the implementation of the International Baccalaureate curriculum with German English dual immersion model. You are taking away students' rights of choice. We have diligently put aside money to use to secure a long term private facility so that we can step out of the Prop 39 program. That money will evaporate if we have to use it to pay for a short-term facility solution for this coming fall, forcing us to rely on Prop 39 for the foreseeable future.
We have sought since December, 2011, to find a solution to this disagreement. But the District has refused to reconsider its position. We ask you, now, before an entire school year is lost, to award Goethe sixteen classrooms plus reasonably equivalent non teaching space.
Thank you for your consideration, and for your work on behalf of all the students of Los Angeles.
Why is this important?
The Los Angeles Unified School District has offered Goethe International Charter School 10 classrooms for the 2012-13 school year. The school currently uses 15 and has requested 16. Goethe is faced with a dire dilemma: kicking out students and laying off staff or renting a facility (IF one is available) and depleting our financial reserves. We ask that all stakeholders and supporters of quality public education ask the District to reconsider its offer and to award Goethe 16 classrooms, plus reasonably equivalent non-teaching space.