Saturday, June 28, 2008

Sylvan Union takes University under wing in its first sponsorship

By MERRILL BALASSONE
mbalassone@modbee.com

last updated: January 23, 2008 03:31:59 AM

University Charter School will be going into its 10th year this fall, but with a new family -- the Sylvan Union School District.

The Sylvan board voted 4-to-1 Tuesday night to take the north Modesto charter school under its watch during the 2008-09 school year. It will mark the first time the district has sponsored a charter school.

Board member George Rawe said he wants to be involved in overseeing University Charter, because 60 percent of the students hail from within Sylvan's boundaries.

"I want to parent my own kids," Rawe said.

University Charter opened in fall of 1999 and enrolls about 240 kindergarten- through fifth-grade students at its Coffee Road campus. It's part of a chain of schools run by Oakland-based nonprofit corporation Aspire Public Schools.

The only audience members on hand for Tuesday night's vote were a group of University Charter parents and teachers wearing matching purple and gold school T-shirts.

"We've been around nine years and have a good track record," said teacher Irving Milbury. "I kind of expected they would go this way."

Board clerk Cynthia Lindsey cast the dissenting vote, after voicing concern that University Charter's enrollment would not include many special education students and would have a lower-than-average percentage of poor children.

"I want a charter school that deals with children who have needs," Lindsey said after the meeting. "That's my idea of a charter."

Rule change forced new charter

Charter schools are tuition-free public schools. They operate using state money but have more freedom in designing their curriculum. The schools operate under a contract, or charter, with a local school district, county office of education, university or the state.

University Charter had been sponsored by the Keyes Union Elementary School District, when regulations allowed backers to get approval from a district other than the one where the school was located. Those regulations changed, and University Charter had to seek approval through Sylvan.

Board members spent an hour and a half picking through a "memorandum of understanding" with University Charter, which details the district's financial and legal responsibilities to the school. Sylvan will be reimbursed $35,000 per year for the cost of overseeing University Charter.

In November, Sylvan board members denied a petition from the Great Valley Academy, a visual-learning charter school now before the Stanislaus County Board of Education.

Superintendent John Halverson said the school was unrealistic in its financial and opera- tional plan and would enroll only a small percentage of Sylvan students.

Bee staff writer Merrill Balassone can be reached at mbalassone@modbee.com or 578-2337.

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