VISTA — As Eagles Peak Charter School officials deal withchanges to the school’s leadership and the threat of losing itscharter, parents must cope with the uncertainty of whether theschool will be around this fall.
Oceanside resident Kathy Shirley, whose four kids attend EaglesPeak, said last week she is looking at other options for the newschool year.
Though Shirley said she loves the charter school and doesn’twant to leave it, she said will have no choice if the Julian UnionHigh School District board decides to revoke the school’s charter.Without a charter, the school cannot operate.
The Julian district holds the charter, though Eagle’s Peakserves roughly 2,000 students in San Diego, Riverside and Orangecounties. The school operates learning centers in Oceanside, Vista,San Marcos and Temecula, among other places.
Over the last couple of months, the Julian board has threatenedto sever ties with the school unless administrators are able toprove that they have addressed a list of concerns, most involvingthe program’s budget and finances.
This month, the board voted to hold off on a decision aboutwhether to move forward with the revocation process, asking schooland district officials to try to work together to resolve a fewremaining problems.
The Julian board plans to revisit the issue at a special meetingwithin the next couple of weeks.
Rufino Diaz, a member of the Eagles Peak board of directors,said he is confident the school has met all of the district’srequests, but said “there’s still a cloud hanging over” theschool.
“It’s definitely having an effect on parents’ decisions,” hesaid about the situation. “Obviously, parents are reluctant tocommit when they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Backup plans
Looking at other programs simply makes sense, said Sarah Moore,a Lake Elsinore resident who has two students enrolled in EaglesPeak’s home-school program in Temecula.
“All the moms are exploring other options,” she said. “We haveto have backup plans.”
So far, the school has signed up fewer than 1,600 students thisyear, down from roughly 2,000 last year. Still, school officialshave said they’re confident that they will be able to boostenrollment by the time school starts in September.
The school will be ready to open, no matter what the Julianboard decides, Diaz said.
“We do have every expectation that we’re going to be opening upand are proceeding accordingly,” he said.
Eagles Peak officials have said they will fight the decision ifthe Julian board decides to revoke the charter.
Shirley, an Oceanside resident, said she isn’t too worried aboutEagles Peak closing, but has still been looking at other charterschools in the area.
A charter school is a publicly funded school that operatesindependently from its chartering district and outside of many ofthe rules typical schools face. Chartering districts areresponsible for keeping an eye on them to ensure that they’refinancially and academically successful.
Programs
Eagle’s Peak offers a variety of programs, all aimed at parentswho either home school their children or want more directinvolvement in their education.
Shirley said she doesn’t want to send her children to a typicalpublic school because she likes the flexibility that Eagles Peakallows and the fact that she can spend more time with herchildren.
Her sixth-grade daughter, Mikayla, agreed.
“I really like it, because I actually can be with my friends,and I can be with my mom more often,” she said.
About half of the students are schooled at home. Though theirparents are their primary teachers, they get materials from theschool and help from educational specialists to put together theirlessons.
The specialist “just makes sure that I’m on track and that thekids are on track,” said Shirley, whose children learn mostly athome, taking a few elective classes at the Vista learning centereach week. “She’s there to be a support to me.”
The other half of the students go to one of the school’s roughly20 learning centers at least a couple of days a week as part ofseveral programs that emphasize different learning environments.One program focuses on bilingual education, another on thearts.
There are two high school programs, one geared toward studentslooking to get a job straight out of high school and the other ablend of on-site learning and independent study.
More information about the programs is available at the school’sWeb site,www.eaglespeak.org.
Leadership changes
More than a year ago, Eagles Peak split into two separateorganizations amid allegations of financial mismanagement, nepotismand conflicts of interest. The split was the result of increasingtensions between the school’s board of directors and itsadministrators, many of whom moved over to the newly formed RiverSprings Charter School during the split.
River Springs now serves Riverside and San Bernardino counties,while Eagles Peak has students in San Diego, Riverside and Orangecounties.
The upheaval subsided, but new concerns arose in May when EaglesPeak’s latest executive director was fired by the board ofdirectors after less than a year on the job, district officialssaid.
Earlier this month, the school’s interim executive director, ArtTownley, dismissed the three remaining top administrators, sayingit was a cost-cutting move.
The turmoil over the last year or two hasn’t affected thestudents’ learning at all, Shirley said.
“My kids still have no idea there are any issues,” she said.”Eagles Peak did a really good job of transitioning and making itas smooth as possible.”
Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 orsbrandt@nctimes.com.
