Photo courtesy of Oxford Preparatory Academy
OPA supporters

By Carol Heyen

The Chino Valley Unified School District school board voted March 17 to deny Oxford Preparatory Academy’s 5-year charter renewal, much to the dismay of over 1,500 school staff and supporters who attended the district meeting held at Don Lugo High.

Oxford Prep, or OPA, a charter school located in Chino, presently has a charter that runs through June 30, 2017.  OPA submitted a renewal charter school petition to the CVUSD on January 25, 2016, which would be for a 5-year term running from July 1, 2017-June 30, 2022.

The renewal charter, according to the school district, was denied because it has several flaws.  In a 77-page report, CVUSD stated that OPA is “demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the program set forth in the OPA-Chino charter renewal petition.” The district also said that the petition failed to address eight of the 15 elements required by state law governing charter schools.

Superintendent Wayne Joseph, who was one of the original supporters of OPA’s charter in 2010, spoke at the meeting.  Superintendent Joseph said, “… it is really with a heavy heart that I come to you tonight, board members, and ask you to approve my recommendation to deny OPA’s current charter petition. Simply put, the petition OPA submitted on Jan. 25 of this year, unlike the other two petitions that were approved, is seriously flawed.”

CVUSD states that the charter petition is “not consistent with sound educational practice.”

One of the failures of the petition, according to the district, is that the OPA budget presents an unrealistic financial and operational plan for the proposed OPA charter school.  The school board said that they “cannot carry out its statutory fiscal oversight responsibility without the ability to review and audit all of OPA’s finances” the way the charter is now written.

The district’s concerns include OPA’s lack of sufficiently projecting enrollment or estimating Independent Study students, cash flow and reserve discrepancies, and timing of revenue. It also notes that OPA has not satisfied the California law that all students be admitted who wish to attend the school.  OPA’s enrollment runs in a lottery system, but children with siblings already attending the school, or parents who are OPA staff or founding members are exempt from the lottery and get first priority.

OPA is very popular with students and parents in the Chino Valley.  Test scores at the school have consistently been in the high 900s, and it has been named a California Distinguished School.

OPA’s supporters are vowing to keep fighting.  OPA Principal Sue Roche’s husband Terry told the crowd, “For eight years, I’ve heard from Mr. Joseph, from Mr. Na how great OPA is,” referring to Superintendent Joseph and board member James Na. “For eight years, every evaluation they gave us — every evaluation they gave us — financially, academically, was the best in California!”

Oxford Prep administrator Jared McLeod said that OPA will “…move on with our legal rights to prove this district wrong and prove what is legally right, which is that this is our school, for five more years!”