Trustees to Discuss Teachers' Charter Request for Hill

By Jon Fortt

Mercury News
12/27/04

When teachers at Andrew Hill High School voted to explore splitting from their school district a week ago, they voted out of concern for stability.

Andrew Hill has gained a new luster, five years after test scores languished at the bottom of state rankings. After drafting an action plan to lift student achievement, it has surpassed its goals on the state's Academic Performance Index three years in a row.

Now there are reasons to worry: Principal David Riley took medical leave this fall, creating uncertainty in the leadership ranks. And with financial cuts looming for every school in the cash-strapped East Side Union High School District, some worry that the programs they've worked so hard to build will be dismantled.

That has led Andrew Hill teachers to consider making it a charter school. The school board will discuss Andrew Hill's concerns at a meeting in early January -- so far, at least two board members have said they're against moving Andrew Hill to a charter.

The push to explore becoming a charter school picked up steam in November, when Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas announced that Ana Lomas would temporarily replace Riley. Though teachers have gotten along with Lomas, the quick shift in naming Lomas without consultation was too much for some.

"We're fearful of the direction the district is going, and we want to protect our programs,'' said Julie Pratico, the Andrew Hill librarian who organized the charter voting process. "We're still in the investigation stage. The vote that we took was not a vote for chartering.''

More than half of the school's 76 tenured staff members voted in favor of moving forward with the charter exploration. Pratico said 56 staff members voted, and 42 voted in favor of continuing the process.

As a charter school, Andrew Hill would have independence from the school district and more control over its budget and personnel decisions. The change also would bring new challenges, including assuring the state that students are attending school and learning according to standards, and that federal funds are being spent appropriately.

Several district leaders oppose the idea of Andrew Hill as a charter school, partly because it probably would be a drain on district finances. At least one school board member, Lan Nguyen, said he's concerned that if Andrew Hill pursues charter status others will follow suit. But he also said he understands that staff members there are ill at ease.

"Whenever you change the principal without letting the teachers know about it, they also worry," Nguyen said. "They feel like it is something just dumped on them, and they feel like they don't have any say in what's going on."

The board will also address the concerns of a few parents in the Evergreen neighborhood of South San Jose, who have approached the Santa Clara County Board of Education about splitting from East Side Union and forming a new school district. It is not clear whether there is broad neighborhood support for the idea.