Sacramento school board to decide fate of St. Hope charter schools after issues revealed

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The Sacramento City Unified School District board will decide the fate of two charter schools operated by St. Hope Public Schools — Public School 7 and Sacramento Charter High — at a meeting Thursday evening.

In many cases, charter renewal is a formality, but the charter school organization has faced scrutiny in recent months following the release of an audit report that alleged several major violations in the school’s governance and fiscal structure which has made for a frustrating, public facing experience for both St. Hope and the school district.

The notice to correct from the district came about one month before St. Hope schools were to have their initial public hearings on charter renewal, which St. Hope Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Ruda said overshadowed what is supposed to be a celebratory process.

A month after receiving the report, St. Hope Public Schools submitted a 1,071 page response to the district that detailed a number of changes in response to the concerns within the audit, including personnel shifts and increased accountability measures for its vendors. Key aspects of the response include Cassandra Jennings’ resignation as school board president, the removal of a Chief Financial Officer with a troublesome past and a plan to recruit more credentialed teachers.

District staff reviewed St. Hope’s response and submitted a final report on the schools’ requests, recommending that both charter renewals be granted. They ultimately found that despite areas of concern outlined in the initial report, St. Hope’s action plan is comprehensive and plausible enough to sufficiently correct those concerns and be eligible for renewal.

However, it is ultimately up to Sacramento City Unified board members to decide whether St. Hope has sufficiently answered for the concerns outlined in the audit. They have three options to consider: denial, approval or conditional approval. Conditional approval would mean placing specific accountability measures on the school to ensure that it meets the goals outlined in the charters’ action plan.

Trustee Chinua Rhodes did not say how he would vote Thursday evening, but did emphasize the need for a stronger relationship between the district and St. Hope to ensure that the charter is on track.

“St. Hope, in their letter back, addressed our concerns and has made significant changes,” he said. “I think it’s one thing to have a piece of paper that says ‘hey, we’re going to do all these things,’ but it’s our responsibility as a board to make sure they implement those changes. For me, I think this is a start.”

After the the monthslong process of the audit and gaining responses from St. Hope, Rhodes said that it “makes no sense for the board to at this point in time wash their hands” of the issues with St. Hope by approving the charter and not continuing to diligently oversee that the changes are made.

Trouble with oversight

The St. Hope response questioned Sacramento City Unified and auditor Christy White for what it deemed a “frustrating and disappointing” process, saying that it felt the questions investigated in the audit report could have been answered in the standard annual charter oversight procedure.

Trustee Taylor Kayatta agreed with this sentiment, saying that had annual oversight been done appropriately in past years, the fraught renewal process may have been avoided.

“I think the district is learning a lot from this experience,” he said. “If oversight is working properly, renewal should be something that we see coming years in advance, because we’ve already worked with them, and we know if there are issues and if they’re being addressed or not.”

Kayatta said that this is a lesson he plans to apply to the district’s relationship with its other dependent charters, which he characterized as being more positive than is typically seen across the state. He believes in the value that St. Hope and other charter organizations bring students in the district.

Rhodes also spoke to the need for a stronger relationship with the charter, but maintained the district’s right as St. Hope’s charter authorizing authority to conduct the independent audit.

“But we need to have better relationships with our charter so this doesn’t happen often,” he said.

Kayatta said he plans to vote for unconditional charter approval, which would allow St. Hope to continue operations through 2030.

“St. Hope does a lot of amazing things for our Black students … At Sac City Unified, we’ve acknowledged that we’re letting a lot of these kids down right now, and so it’s important that their charter school is able to focus on that — they should be able to do that,” he said. “It’s just that in doing so, they need to make sure that they’re following the charter law and all the best practices that need to be followed and that we’re making sure they are meeting the standards they committed to when they created their charter.”

Similarly, Rhodes praised St. Hope schools while emphasizing the need for continued oversight.

“St. Hope services a community that actually needs the help and services, but at the same time, it’s our responsibility to make sure they’re doing what they say they’re going to do,” he said.