Article published Oct 12, 2005
SUSD reviewing charter proposal

STOCKTON -- A network of small, charter high schools would bring its newest campus to the city under a proposal Stockton Unified School District trustees reviewed Tuesday night.

The school board is to consider approving Leadership Public School's petition at a future meeting.

If approved, the San Francisco-based nonprofit would bring to Stockton Unified a 500-student high school designed to serve mostly poor and minority teens. The organization also could bring the investments of "social entrepreneurs" increasingly willing to pour millions of dollars into public education.

According to supporters, the enthusiasm those business leaders and charitable foundations have for charters owes to the schools' effectiveness.

But other educators are skeptical: Whether charter schools are more successful than other schools is questionable, they say, adding that charters tend to siphon talented students and limited state dollars from already struggling districts.

Charter schools receive state funding, but unlike traditional public schools, they are run relatively independently. Stockton Unified has been critical of charter petitions in recent years, with trustees rejecting at least two of them since 2000.
That's because the governing board is ultimately responsible for the campuses, and many charter petitions don't prove their schools will be academically or financially successful, Trustee Louis Gonzales said.

"You can put anything on paper you want as far as plans," Gonzales said. "I'm looking for a school that can do as good as us or better."

Leadership Public Schools and its leader, Mark Kushner, have faced similar skepticism since the organization was founded in 2002.

In 2003, San Jose's East Side Union High School District rejected Leadership's charter bid. The Campbell Union High School District turned down a similar proposal earlier this year.

The Santa Clara County Office of Education later approved both petitions on appeal.

Other organizations have been more supportive of Leadership Public Schools.

The Pisces Foundation, launched by Gap founders Doris and Don Fisher, donated $1 million to Leadership in August. Two months earlier, the charter organization announced it had raised more than $5 million through NewSchools Venture Fund, an investment firm. The fund also has contributed to Aspire Public Schools, which operates several San Joaquin County campuses.

"They can see that the money and resources they give directly impact student achievement," Gary Larson, spokesman for the California Charter Schools Association, said of private investment in certain public schools.

"They're going to see a direct return on a social investment that they're making."

Kushner said private investments in Leadership are used mainly for school startup costs.

The nonprofit is interested in Stockton partly because there is a need for a small public high school, Kushner said. The district's high school campuses have about 3,000 students each. Its newest, Cesar Chavez High, has about 1,400 but so far houses only freshmen and sophomores.

Leadership Public Schools already has hired a principal to oversee its potential Stockton campus. Michele Cole, a University of the Pacific graduate, served as Lincoln High School's principal before resigning abruptly in 2002 about a year after she was appointed.

"It was a personal, family issue," Cole said Tuesday. "I didn't want to make it public at the time."

She has been living in Stockton since then and said she hopes to work collaboratively with the school district.

Dennis Brennan, a professor at Pacific's Gladys L. Benerd School of Education, said charters can be beneficial, but districts are wise to be cautious when reviewing their applications.

Trustees should ask, "How, in fact, will it benefit the community in which it is serving?" Brennan said. "That's the whole key issue in public education. If charters are just used to take some of the more-talented students out of the public system, then I don't know that that serves the public good."

Contact reporter Jennifer Torres at 209 546-8252 or jtorres@recordnet.com