State charter group urges closure of Vista campus

A Vista charter school is among six in California that should be closed due to low academic achievement, according to the state’s leading charter advocacy group.

The North County Trade Tech High School has been called out as “chronically underperforming” by the California Charter Schools Association. The group released recommendations on Thursday for the “non-renewal” of the Vista charter and five others in the state.

Officials with the charter did not return phone calls seeking comment. But Principal Phil Lutgen sent a letter to parents criticizing the state association’s recommendations as political in nature. Lutgen said Trade Tech was getting punished for its disagreement with another charter that had sought to open a school in its industrial park.

“We believe that this announcement was motivated by a political disagreement and not simply a concern for student performance and welfare,” Lutgen wrote in the memo.

The state charter association did not return a phone call seeking comment. The group, which represents the state’s nearly 1,300 charter schools, said in a press release it makes recommendations based on an accountability framework and minimum criteria for charter renewal it developed with members. The system assesses a multi-year view of a school’s performance using student outcome measures — publicly available data — and student demographics.

CEO and President Jed Wallace said in a statement the association works with struggling charters and gives them an opportunity to provide additional compelling evidence of growth in student achievement.

“We strongly urge school boards across the state to do what is right for students,” Wallace said. “In this case that means denying the renewal of six charter schools that are not providing the high-quality education students deserve.”

The Vista charter offers vocational training under state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s California Career Readiness Initiative. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown provided nearly $31 million in funding for the academies, and made the program a permanent part of the state budget, in part, because of its goal of helping at-risk students. It is not clear how much in state grants the Vista school received.

The other state charters called out for closure include: the Academy of Science & Engineering in Los Angeles, the Butterfield Charter High School in Tulare, The Green Valley Charter Schools in Merced, the Schaefer Charter School in Sonoma, and the West Sacramento Early College Prep Charter School in Yolo County.

maureen.magee@sduniontribune.com

Twitter:@MaureenMagee