To: Mary Jane Burke, Marin County Superintendent of Schools, Patricia Warren, Patricia Garbarino, David Hellman, MCOE Board President, Robert Goldman, Marilyn Nemzer, Curtis Robinson, and Clairette Wilson, MCEO Board Vice President
Support a County-wide Solution over new RVSD Charter
To Mary Jane Burke and The Marin County Office of Education:
On behalf of and in the interest of all of the children in Marin County, we formally ask you to acknowledge and properly serve the 600+ students participating in Independent Study programs throughout the county by establishing a model that is effectively administered with proper oversight and true accountability to the Marin County Office of Education.
Heartwood Collaborative currently enrolls students from across the county and they have developed a rich and tested program to serve these children. Heartwood is now poised to establish a county-wide initiative, offering a solution that is currently non-existent but is wanted and very much needed. Please take this opportunity, which we believe is the right path to a solution for hundreds of children in our county.
If this opportunity is not pursued and the avenue is closed, it is likely Heartwood will be forced to file a charter petition with the Ross Valley School District. With funding in the bottom 10% of all of California’s school districts, RVSD is already burdened by a divisive and costly charter school and can’t afford the time and money required to analyze another charter petition, much less absorb the impact of administering a new charter school. Furthermore, Heartwood has no desire to impose themselves on a single district but would prefer to work collaboratively with all districts and the county.
Please step in and avert this situation, pursue the best path forward and create a program that can become a model example for our State.
As your constituents, we respectfully request that you:
1) Keep the path open to the right solution for the 19/20 school year, versus closing this avenue and pushing Heartwood to file a charter petition in the Ross Valley School District.
2) Rectify an unresolved need by collaborating in good faith with the leadership of Heartwood Collaborative – a 15 year+ program - to establish an Independent Study program that would serve all of Marin County, for the 19/20 school year.
On behalf of and in the interest of all of the children in Marin County, we formally ask you to acknowledge and properly serve the 600+ students participating in Independent Study programs throughout the county by establishing a model that is effectively administered with proper oversight and true accountability to the Marin County Office of Education.
Heartwood Collaborative currently enrolls students from across the county and they have developed a rich and tested program to serve these children. Heartwood is now poised to establish a county-wide initiative, offering a solution that is currently non-existent but is wanted and very much needed. Please take this opportunity, which we believe is the right path to a solution for hundreds of children in our county.
If this opportunity is not pursued and the avenue is closed, it is likely Heartwood will be forced to file a charter petition with the Ross Valley School District. With funding in the bottom 10% of all of California’s school districts, RVSD is already burdened by a divisive and costly charter school and can’t afford the time and money required to analyze another charter petition, much less absorb the impact of administering a new charter school. Furthermore, Heartwood has no desire to impose themselves on a single district but would prefer to work collaboratively with all districts and the county.
Please step in and avert this situation, pursue the best path forward and create a program that can become a model example for our State.
As your constituents, we respectfully request that you:
1) Keep the path open to the right solution for the 19/20 school year, versus closing this avenue and pushing Heartwood to file a charter petition in the Ross Valley School District.
2) Rectify an unresolved need by collaborating in good faith with the leadership of Heartwood Collaborative – a 15 year+ program - to establish an Independent Study program that would serve all of Marin County, for the 19/20 school year.
Why is this important?
Over 600 students participate in independent study programs throughout Marin County without oversight by the Marin County Office of Education. There is a potential solution that would offer a program that would provide accountability.