Nine teachers from Piru Elementary School, working with their former principal Richard Durborow, mailed a charter school petition last week to Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Superintendent Jeff Sweeney and Board Members beginning the process to obtain charter status for Piru Elementary School. Piru Charter School (PCS) plans to open their doors beginning in the 2010-2011 school year. The charter petition is a result of collaboration which began last spring during a District reorganization planning process, and which continued despite the efforts of the FUSD administration to halt it.

District Superintendent Jeff Sweeney released this statement to the Gazette: “The District first became aware last year that a small group of Piru staff and parents was interested in pursuing a charter due to concerns being raised by staff who were not in favor of the potential charter. By the end of the school year, these growing concerns divided the staff and was becoming a disruption to the school. Consequently, I directed interested staff not to work on the charter during school hours, but rather on their own time. The Fillmore Unified School District received a petition for a charter conversion on September 16, 2009, without the consensus or knowledge of the whole staff. That was the first official notice that a charter was being considered. No decision on the charter has been reached. A public hearing will be held on October 21 at 6:00 p.m. to review the application. The District will consider the application according to Board policy.”
Following are questions submitted be the Gazette and facts regarding the proposed Charter School supplied by Piru teachers Richard Durborow, Susan Jolley, and Chris Pavic.

Did you apply for Charter status last spring? If so, what became of that? Or were you just discussing it?
We did not apply for Charter status last spring. We were just doing research and having discussions about going Charter. Eventually we decided it was a good idea and then used the summer to write our petition.

How will Piru becoming a Charter affect the district financially?
It isn’t about money. It’s about student learning and using the money where it will have the most impact. We are not taking district money because it isn’t their money in the first place. The money travels with the students. District officials may need to re-think how they run a school district but we all know that is long overdue. In fact, with fewer students and one less campus, FUSD will be able to better focus their efforts on improving local Fillmore schools.

Was there resistance to the Charter from the District/Board in the spring?
While there had been discussions about the possible advantages of forming a charter school amongst the staff over the years, what sparked renewed interest was the formation of the District’s Reconfiguration Committee. At those meetings, led by Jeff Sweeney, it appeared that the District was open to looking at innovative changes to our schools that would lead to real educational reform and improvement. One of the options mentioned and discussed was charter schools.

Further encouragement came from personal discussions with the superintendent, where he indicated his interest in the concept of charter schools, and from the encouragement of Harry Burns, then President of FUTA, who liked the idea of Piru becoming a charter school, and shared that he had tried to form a charter at Fillmore HS.

In response, the Piru staff created its own site-level reconfiguration committee, and began meeting during the summer of 2008. The superintendent was informed of the committee, and invited to attend a meeting. Once school started meetings continued at school, on and off. The District was aware of these meetings.

It was in early March of last year that it became obvious the District had no intention of allowing a charter school to be formed at Piru. The District became punitive and would not allow charter school discussions to occur at school. They wrongly thought that bullying-tactics would scare people away from further charter school development. It was at that point the majority of the staff who supported becoming a charter continued discussions outside of school.

What are class sizes now, grades 4-6?
Across the district, grades 4-6 can have as many as 32 students. Currently Mrs. Jolley has32 students in her 5-6-combination classroom. Teaching two very different curriculums at the same time does not follow best educational practice. As class sizes increase achievement drops and students begin to fall through the cracks. With just one additional teacher, PCS students will be learning in single grade levels with class sizes of 24 students. Smaller classes translate into quality learning and less re-teaching. Smaller classes offer student’s individualized attention and fewer classroom disruptions.

Explain “Educate the whole child”.
Over the last three years we developed a school reform model called “Educating the Whole Child” (EWC) that has had phenomenal success in improving student learning. The EWC approach to improved student learning includes: using researched-based instructional strategies to increase student achievement, using a social-development program that immediately impacts the attitudes of children, and using aerobic exercise to focus, motivate and invigorate students. A powerful three-step recipe for student success!

While using EWC student behavior and academic performance dramatically improved. In fact, according to State test data our students not only met school-wide API growth targets each of the three years but as determined by the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program (STAR) student scores increased an overall 94 points! Also according to the recent 2009 Adequate Yearly Progress Report (AYP) Piru students met all 17 of 17 AYP criteria.
Can a non-charter school still “blend traditions like dance festival w/project-based learning…?” see front page Charter School 09/24/09.

Absolutely. However, one of the exciting advantages of charter schooling is the curriculum flexibility gained by site-based decision-making. Teachers in the classrooms can come up with an idea or a plan and it can be put into place without going through levels of district approval or disapproval. The charter school organization is more responsive to student needs by returning the power to choose programs and curriculums directly to the staff that teach and are held accountable for student learning.

Students from the local area will receive first-admission priority. Define “local area”.
Local area means the same attendance area that currently applies for Piru Elementary students.

You stated the FUSD can’t stop the charter school approval process (Charter School 09/24/09 Gazette edition). Wasn’t it “stopped” last spring?
No, it was never stopped. As stated earlier the staff continued to research becoming a charter school and then during the summer wrote the charter petition. FUSD can decide not to approve the charter petition but then the charter petition approval process moves to the County Board of Education and if necessary the State Board of Education. The Piru Charter School train has left the station and it’s just a matter of time before we are approved.

When did you first consider converting Piru to a Charter school? How many of the teaching staff supported the Charter? Fed and State monies—a brief overview of how the district oversees it now and how that may change with Charter status.

The Piru Charter School began as a conversation between Piru school staff, parents, and community members more than five years ago. Becoming a charter school was never my idea. As I became aware of the many deficiencies in the district office and their lack of real concern for the students and parents of Piru Elementary School I realized our only alternative was to become a charter school. We currently have nine permanent teachers supporting the charter petition. Piru Charter School’s budget for the first year is estimated at over $3 million dollars. Those dollars will be part of our budget and not the District’s budget. This is a major change! All future budget decisions will be decided by PCS staff, parents, and community members. We are returning Piru School to the Piru community.

Susan Jolley - Explain your “method” for raising the API and AYP standards. How will the curriculum change with a Charter? What ides do you have in mind, such as the dance festival with project-based learning and green living (explain green living.)
When I was involved in coaching at Fillmore Middle School, we raised our API over 100 points in three years-and, with the help of the Middle School Demonstration Program, became the first Model Middle School. With the help of an Underperforming Schools Grant, Piru Elementary has raised it’s API 94 points during the last three years, making it one of the most improved elementary schools in Ventura County. There are similarities. Both schools had principals who understood the power of collaborative leadership. Both schools have committed, caring staffs. Both schools were able to look at their student achievement, curriculum, and instructional configurations and act to create programs that not only created success for students but excitement about learning. Having grants gave both schools the independence to design and fund planning time, purchase supplemental programs, and track data about their schools and their students. The charter school organization will continue to offer Piru the autonomy to make and purchase the curriculums and programs Piru students need. All of us at Piru are excited about this new adventure in education!

Informed green living means Piru will strive to avoid using over 350 Styrofoam plates each day. Kids can learn life habits that will sustain our planet, but they must be taught. We hope to offer lunches with more local fruit and vegetables. Class recycling will be a way of life. It means turning off water without being asked and being careful not to waste paper and other resources. Piru has always had a school farm and PCS plans to utilize it more fully by growing organic food. PCS will get more involved with the “Green Schools” movement and learn how create more natural light and fresh air in classrooms by using solar panels and skylights.

Chris Pavic – from the union point of view, is this something they support and why.
I cannot speak for the union, but I can say that my experience during this process has been that the focus of the associations, both CTA and FUTA, has been to support educators, and to follow the laws as they apply to charter schools.

At Piru School last winter and spring, our entire staff, both teachers and classified employees, were invited to participate in a process of creating our vision of a school that was an ideal workplace to allow us to do our best as educators. At a series of meetings that were only halted by the District administration’s sudden punitive demotion of Richard Durborow, we all agreed on a series of principles for a possible charter school that protects employee rights, keeps staff who work with children, protects employee retirement plans so that staff will not be forced to leave, and gives all employees a voice in the operation of the school. CTA has been very helpful in providing guidance in drafting our charter petition so it supports those principles.
The actions of CTA throughout this process convinces me that their goal has been to support educators, both teachers and classified members, no matter in what sort of public school they work, whether it be a traditional district school, or a public charter school. I have spoken with several of CTA’s regional organizers, who help educators to create local associations, and they have told me that their main focus recently has been charter schools. I think it is a good sign that in Los Angeles, the teacher’s union decided that rather than try to stop the conversion of new and underperforming schools in charters, they would join the process in supporting teachers to create charter plans at their schools, and seek to link those teachers directly to educational experts, thus making the need for district level administrators superfluous. After all, it was our own FUTA President, Theresa Marvel, who last winter, when the Board was considering cuts to balance the budget, started asking, ‘when are you going to cut from the top?’ Then, after the Board failed to make any substantial cuts to top administration, it was Theresa who, at the request of the Board President, wrote up a reorganization plan to cut the District Administration, which to this day, the Board has entirely ignored. Not only did the Board ignore FUTA’s proposal to keep cuts as far from the children as possible, they turned right around and approved a budget in June which will actually increase spending on administration this year, while cutting teachers and classified employees who work directly with students.

Our experience with planning Piru Charter School has shown that, in contrast to the Board’s actions, we will be able to keep the staff we have who work directly with children, restore some of the cuts the Board made to employee hours, and add staff who provide valuable services to students. What is not needed are more administrators sitting in offices. In essence, our charter school plan mirrors the reorganization plan that Theresa Marvel presented to the Board last year. The difference is that we will implement it, while the Board continues to sit on their hands.

Richard, Susan, Chris, please expand on “going Charter”.
CHARTER SCHOOL INTENT AND CHARTER REQUIREMENTS
It is the intent of the California Legislature, in enacting the Charter Schools Act of 1992, to provide opportunities for teachers, parents, pupils, and community members to establish and maintain schools that operate independently from the existing school district structure, as a method to accomplish all of the following: Improve pupil learning. Increase learning opportunities for all pupils, with special emphasis on expanded learning experiences for pupils who are identified as academically low achieving. Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods. Create new professional opportunities for teachers, including the opportunity to be responsible for the learning program at the school site. Provide parents and pupils with expanded choices in the types of educational opportunities that are available within the public school system. Hold the schools established under this part accountable for meeting measurable pupil outcomes, and provide the schools with a method to change from rule-based to performance-based accountability systems. Provide vigorous competition within the public school system to stimulate continual improvements in all public schools. In reviewing petitions for the establishment of charter schools the chartering authority shall be guided by the intent of the Legislature that charter schools are and should become an integral part of the California educational system and that establishment of charter schools should be encouraged.

Mission and Vision Statement
The PCS mission statement: Instituting a vision of educating the whole child by creating a safe, caring, healthy, supportive, innovative, and academically challenging educational environment that ensures all students are self-motivated, self-disciplined, competent, and lifelong learners.

Driven by improved student learning and higher test scores the petitioners want to take the next step and explore new ways to challenge students and motivate them to reach higher and become more. PCS will create a collaborative learning community comprised of parents, staff, community members, and students all dedicated to the vision of educating the whole child. In the past many Piru students have been considered “at-risk” of failing. PCS plans on changing that to “at-risk” of succeeding! Our goal is to raise academic achievement so high that 100% of our students will not only graduate from high school but 100% of them will be accepted to college!

PCS email: pirucharterschool@earthlink.net - PCS Blog: www.pirucharterschool.blogspot.com.