Sparrow Academy Charter School parents and students showered the executive director of their school with a round of applause after she spoke her truth about the school’s future to the La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board on Tuesday night.
“We’re facing possible closure and the financial impact alone will end us,” said Michelle D’Augusta, Executive Director of Sparrow Academy Charter School.
The school board voted unanimously during Tuesday night’s special meeting to issue a Notice of Violation to Sparrow Academy over several issues including:
Notice of Violation issues
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- A special education teacher who worked for two years without proper credentials
- ADA compliance issues with regards to teaching students and access to facilities
- Not having appropriate facilities and space for students, as well as not operating in “a sound fiscal condition“
Following Sparrow Academy Charter School
“Our hope is the school will bring us a plan that would lay out how they'll remedy the issues in the Notice of Violation and continue to exist and thrive," said Superintendent David Feliciano.
The Notice of Violation is the first step in a process for the district to possibly revoke the school's charter.
Though the academy has a month to show they're fixing the problems, D’Augusta says the board's vote is essentially a nail in the coffin, limiting their access to money to make changes.
“We are no longer allowed to borrow money to support our fiscal issues that we need to do, as many public schools are doing now with budget cuts," explained D’Augusta.
D'Augusta says she alerted the board to some of the schools long-standing issues that the board said started nearly two years ago.
“Each notice we've sent, we’ve let them know what we’re doing to fix all the issues, all the concerns,” said D’Augusta. “They’ve ignored our request.”
D’Augusta says not only is she frustrated over the lack of communication with the board, she's not been given enough time to fix the issues, after only five months on the job.
“My heart is broken with theirs. It’s going to be hard facing those students knowing we might not exist next year for them," D’Augusta lamented.
“We want what’s best for the kids,” said Superintendent Feliciano. My kids are here in the district. That’s where our hearts are, that’s why we do the work. But we're also a public agency and we have to function under the law."
Sparrow Academy has until April 19 to come up with a plan to make fixes that the board approves.
If the board doesn't approve of the plan, then they can continue with the process of revoking the school's charter.
