Charter School Debate Continues at Public Hearing

The long-running argument over whether or not Dublin should accept a charter school for high school education continued at the library Wednesday night, where the school district hosted a public hearing on a petition submitted last month.

The petition for Tassajara Preparatory was to the An earlier draft was rejected last year by the district and the Alameda County Office of Education, but was withdrawn before reaching the state Department of Education.

to clarify the district's questions, according to the petition’s authors, many of whom are board members of the Tri-Valley Learning Corporation that operates Livermore Valley Charter Preparatory.

The petition proposes that the school open in fall 2012 with a freshman class of 216 students. If the five-year charter is approved, Tassajara Preparatory would add a grade each year in order to accommodate ninth through 12th grades by 2015-16.

At Wednesday’s public hearing, dozens of opponents of the charter school plan were lively and often clapped, hooted and hollered in support of their cause.

A smaller contingent of the plan’s supporters was composed of TVLC board members and LVCP administrators, including some who said Tassajara Preparatory had a lot of supportive parents in the community but few who felt comfortable speaking publicly at the hearing.

Top district and Dublin High administrators were among those standing against the petition, including Principal Carol Shimizu and Superintendent Stephen Hanke. Supt. Hanke ended the hearing with remarks touting Dublin High’s rising test scores.

“Dublin High School is a high-performing school,” he said, citing its scores.

Shimizu said the rise in test scores shows Dublin High “is on a roll.” 

But the petition jeopardizes that progress, Hanke said, and has become “divisive” to the community.

“We’ve faced challenges… but none of these challenges has been more disappointing than dealing with this petition,” Hanke told board trustees in his comments. “From the outset, you have heard a common theme: it is not needed, not wanted and is causing unnecessary divisiveness in this community. It is a threat to fiscal stability to this district.”

Some Dublin High parents, teachers and students attending the hearing echoed Hanke’s comments during their time at the podium; others showed solidarity with matching T-shirts reading “Unite for Dublin High.”

Michelle McDonald, a mother of two Dublin High students, displayed her shirt while calling the charter school plan “a distraction in our community… in a time of unprecedented economic pressure.”

“They want a private school education at a public school price,” McDonald said. The comment drew applause from attendees.

Other opponents included heavily involved Dublin High students who presented their resumes as evidence that the school comprehensively readied them for college.

Lauren Koa said she has been involved in band, color guard, the school’s newspaper and student leadership in her time at Dublin High.  A charter school, she said, is unnecessary.

“I am confident that when I graduate from Dublin High I’ll have every single resource to do well in college,” said Koa, who is currently student body secretary. “DHS has provided me and so many others with everything that any student needs to thrive.”

The petition’s supporters said Dublin High serves many of its students well but added that Tassajara Preparatory would offer an option to those whose needs aren’t being met.

“To hear all the positive statements about Dublin High, that’s absolutely awesome,” Julie Lassig, one of Tassajara Preparatory’s founders, said at the hearing. “But it’s unreasonable to think that what’s great for one is great for all and that quality educational choice in a community doesn’t benefit all its citizens.”

Lassig said that some students who have thrived at LVCP “would fall through the cracks in a larger school” such as Dublin High or Livermore High.

LVCP principal Lauren Kelly echoed the sentiment, saying, “for some students, the connection of a small school is incredibly important and means the difference between success and failure.”

“If you look beyond the cameras and the clapping, we would agree that students do not have cookie-cutter needs,” Kelly said.

George Wu also said different students have different needs, including his two children at .

“Every kid learns differently,” Wu said. “We owe it to our children to offer a choice — choice is great.”

Some Dublin High students took issue with the petition itself, calling it an affront to their school’s standing.

“A second high school would take away from our community,” said Alexandra Brown, a junior. “It would create two mediocre high schools … This isn’t about choice, it’s about splitting up our community.”

Student Alex Marshall said the petition made Dublin High seem “inadequate,” and that students “take this as a personal insult that defies everything that we believe in, take pride in and look forward to.”

Several Tassajara Preparatory supporters read statements from parents, some anonymous, backing the charter school plans. John Zukoski, one of the school’s founders, read the statement of one East Dublin resident and parent who was concerned about the “rapidly growing city with many high-density communities.”  The parent also said he knew others who moved their children from Dublin schools to others in San Ramon or Pleasanton when they reached high-school age.

TVLC Chief Operating Officer Bill Batchelor said his peers wanted to read statements from supportive parents because many felt uncomfortable with the hearing as a forum.

“It is not our wish to subject our supporters to such an environment,” Batchelor said.

The petition will now go to the district's board of trustees for consideration.