"The county’s Board of Education, which is now the authorizer of these charter schools, acted against the recommendation of the L.A. County Superintendent of Schools and her staff as well as LAUSD on Tuesday."
"“Overturning the superintendent and staff is not something that I take lightly, but here we had a situation where the admittedly serious fiscal problems were under resolution under (Magnolia Public Schools’ CEO and Superintendent) Caprice Young,”
"County staff recommended denying the petitions for a series of reasons, including “potential civil liability for the county board” as a result of Magnolia Public Schools’ “clear pattern of poor fiscal management” and a “pattern of failing to respond in a timely manner to its (previous) authorizer,” which was LAUSD."
"not all student subgroups at the schools have shown increases in academic achievement over the past two years, according to the L.A. County Office of Education staff. County staff also noted at Tuesday’s meeting that enrollment has been declining at the three schools and called the attrition rate of African-American students at the Magnolia Science Academy 3 in Carson “alarming.”
3 Magnolia charter schools facing closure ‘vindicated’ after winning appeal
Three Magnolia Public Schools, including two in the San Fernando Valley, were spared from potential closure after a county board voted this week to renew their charter school petitions on appeal.
The Los Angeles County Board of Education voted 4-1 Tuesday to renew the charters of Magnolia Science Academies 1, 2 and 3, located respectively in Reseda, the Lake Balboa area and Carson through June 2022. Two months ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education denied their renewal. The three college preparatory schools, which are part of a network of 10 public charter schools in Southern California that emphasize math and science, serve about 1,400 sixth- through 12th-grade students in economically disadvantaged communities.
The county’s Board of Education, which is now the authorizer of these charter schools, acted against the recommendation of the L.A. County Superintendent of Schools and her staff as well as LAUSD on Tuesday.
“Overturning the superintendent and staff is not something that I take lightly, but here we had a situation where the admittedly serious fiscal problems were under resolution under (Magnolia Public Schools’ CEO and Superintendent) Caprice Young,” said Doug Boyd, president of the county board who voted in favor of renewal, on Thursday. “Since she got here in January 2015, we’ve seen major improvement in every single area questioned or the problem has been completely resolved.”
Boyd said he was impressed by the “very strong” academic performance of the schools’ students, including high graduation and college-readiness rates.
County staff recommended denying the petitions for a series of reasons, including “potential civil liability for the county board” as a result of Magnolia Public Schools’ “clear pattern of poor fiscal management” and a “pattern of failing to respond in a timely manner to its (previous) authorizer,” which was LAUSD.
In addition, not all student subgroups at the schools have shown increases in academic achievement over the past two years, according to the L.A. County Office of Education staff. County staff also noted at Tuesday’s meeting that enrollment has been declining at the three schools and called the attrition rate of African-American students at the Magnolia Science Academy 3 in Carson “alarming.”
In October, LAUSD’s Charter Schools Division cited the Magnolia schools’ “failure to timely respond” to document requests from LAUSD’s Office of Inspector General, which has been investigating Magnolia Public Schools since September 2014, and the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team, an external state agency that provides financial oversight. District staffers said that Magnolia Public Schools’ “repeated failure” to respond in a reasonable time frame to information requests “limited the district’s ability to fully oversee the fiscal and business operations” of the nonprofit.
Had the L.A. County Board of Education rejected renewal of the schools this week, the nonprofit charter school group could have appealed the decision to the state. The state appeal would have been its last recourse to avoid closure other than pursuing litigation, Young said.
“We were given a real opportunity to refute the misstatements and to add in the facts that were in our favor that had been left out, such as the fact that we have a near 100 percent graduation rate and our students graduate college ready,” Young said Thursday.
Each of the three schools has at least a 98 percent graduation rate and among the students who do graduate, more than 80 percent meet University of California and Cal State University eligibility requirements, according to the national nonprofit GreatSchools.org.
Young, a former LAUSD school board president, called the concerns of the county’s Office of Education and LAUSD staff “unfounded” but said the group will “continue to provide information to any oversight bodies and overseers that they request.”
The governing board of Magnolia Public Schools currently has three vacancies that it hopes to fill with community members, Young said.
The affected Magnolia schools in Reseda and Van Nuys were in the top 3 percent of all high schools in the nation, according to an April issue of U.S. News & World Report. The Magnolia school in the Lake Balboa area was also identified at the time as the top-ranked charter high school within LAUSD boundaries.
The government of Turkey has alleged that Magnolia Public Schools has inappropriate ties to a Turkish national Fethullah Gulen, who has been charged in absentia there for allegedly trying to destabilize the Turkish government. Young, who called Turkey’s allegation a “frivolous political vendetta” that has nothing to do with the local students, said the L.A. County Office of Education staff and its board “were smart enough” to realize that was not a real issue.
“We feel vindicated and just happy to be able to educate our kids,” Young said of Tuesday’s decision. “The county recognized that we’re doing a great job in collaboration with our families.”
Magnolia Science Academy Conditional Approval from County <----CLICK HERE
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| Magnolia Science Academy 3 1254 E. Helmick St. Carson, CA 90746 USA THE SCHOOL THAT HAS AN "Alarming" attrition rate of African American students. http://us13.campaign-archive1.com/?u=0d77908cc700f77c0469ede0d&id=943704748a
A little-known county board overruled its own staff and the powerful Los Angeles Unified School District this week to allow three embattled charter schools to remain open.
The reprieve represents a full turnabout for Magnolia Public Schools, which faced the shutdown of its campuses after L.A. Unified moved against them in October.
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