Dr. Ramona Bishop
Since the California Charter School Act was approved in 1992 over 1,200 charters have formed throughout the state.
Dr. Ramona Bishop, a former K-12 superintendent and educational leader, has a community-led charter petition before Vallejo School District for the opening of ELITE Charter School. Last month, parents, civil rights leaders and education advocates gathered at Rehoboth World Outreach Center to discuss the process and the application before it goes before the school board.
ELITE Charter School, which stands for Entrepreneur skills, Language, Innovation, Technology, and Engineering; has a pending charter petition which will be voted on August 1 by the Vallejo Unified School District. If passed, ELITE will open in Vallejo for the 2019-2020 school year.
“Every child that is in Vallejo’s boundaries or beyond deserves to have quality and a powerful education,” said Danny Jefferson, ELITE board member.
California is the state with the highest number of charter schools across the nation serving more African-American youth when compared to traditional public schools. The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) says the difference is because there is “unmet parent demand for quality school options.”
Parents and community members expressed support for the program that has 450 enrolled students and 260 pre-enrolled students. A parent from the audience said that in Elite they will not “have to worry about transitioning [their kids] at three o’clock” with the extended hours of the optional afterschool program.
Further, parents expressed concerns over the cuts to STEM programs in the Vallejo School District and a parent commented that Elite would offer “stem, engineering, and coding.”
Tausha Johnson, a parent leader, also expressed her support for Elite charter schools. Johnson said Elite’s “African-American and Latino cultural element is what is absent in today’s classroom and will be introduced in the Elite program.”
She said, “children will learn about American history through the Latino and African American Perspective.” Bishop says this is important because literature that celebrates the lives of young people with the African-American and Latino perspectives “allows young people to have strong self-esteem.”
However, an email addressed to the United Democrats, was sent out urging its list recipients to make an effort to come out to the board meeting to oppose the charter.
“As Democrats, we support public schools and not private charter schools that drain our public school resources,” wrote Stephen Hallett.
Johnson said, “Elite is important because it will help close the achievement gap and will balance out the educational system for all brown children.” Johnson shared her experience with the public school system saying there was too much “variance in teachers, where one year you may get a great teacher and another year you may get an awful teacher.”
“As a parent, you have to come home from work, and you have to fill the gaps of what the teacher left behind,” Johnson said. “That is what our tax dollars are paying them to do. If they are not enthusiastic about the career or about the job anymore, then we don’t feel like they should be teaching our children.”
The Vallejo Unified School District will take up the Elite Charter school petition Aug. 1 at 665 Walnut Ave. and starts at 6:00 p.m.
Contributed by Marisol Beas| California Black Media.
