At a special board meeting on November 9, called for the purpose of considering a charter school application, the School Board of the Los Alamitos Unified School District voted 5/0 to deny the petition. Citing numerous deficiencies in the application, district administration questioned the likelihood of success by the Global Tides @ Orange County Charter School. The petitioner, Marco Salazart, told OC180NEWS.com he plans to refile a corrected petition and open the school by next year.

Global Tides, a non-profit organization created by Charter School Development Systems of Newport Beach, plans to open a California, statewide, online, K-12 charter school in September 2010. According to the company, “The online, K-12 charter school would provide another public educational option for 1) Educationally ‘At-Risk’ students and who may potentially drop out, 2) Home schooled students, 3) Home bound students, 4) Independent studies students, and 5) Students who live in rural areas who must commute a great distance.”

Salazart said “We have received several findings of fact from several attorneys that have been employed by the districts and we plan to use the information that we have received and improve the charter and resubmit based on all the recommendations.”

The California Education Code allows a charter school to enroll students from anywhere in the county where it is chartered, plus students from anywhere within all adjoining counties. Thus, by filing the petition in 14 selected counties across the state, Global Tides hopes to offer a statewide online school.

Salazart said “That is the reason that we selected 14 strategically located counties within the state of California.” Even though 91 applications have been submitted to various school districts in the selected counties, he indicated no approvals have been received as yet. But if they get just one approval in each of the 14 counties, they could accept students statewide.

According to Salazart, some of the 91 districts are “on the fence”. He said “We’re going to revise and we’re going to submit to those districts”. He expects to complete the amended petition in about 30 days. He said “We’re still on track for opening fall 2010.”

The meeting this week, along with its opportunity for public comment, was the second time the Los Alamitos Unified School District has considered this charter school petition. As required, the School Board held a public hearing a few weeks ago as another time for public comment. No person—parents, teachers, students, or anyone else—came forward to speak at either meeting.

Although no board members, or any representative of the administration, spoke in favor of the petition, some board members indicated their vote in favor of rejecting the charter petition was not a rejection of charter schools in general. After the meeting, district Superintendent Dr. Gregory Franklin said “The ed code is pretty clear that the purpose of the ed code is to encourage charter schools.”

Franklin continued “The district that grants the charter is responsible for the financial and academic oversight of the charter.”

Salazart indicated that the goal of his organization is to enroll students who are not currently in school. This was his justification for saying the charter school would not cost the district any money. If current Los Alamitos district students enrolled in the charter school, the money the district receives for those students would be transferred from the district to the charter school. If the students are not currently enrolled, there would be no financial loss to the district.

Total district enrollment is a subject of concern at the district. With roughly 25% of current enrollment coming from outside of the district’s geographical boundaries and always facing the possibility of declining local enrollment, at budget time, district officials pay close attention to the number of enrolled students. If a significant number of students were to enroll in the charter school, it would be challenging for the district to maintain the current level of educational services.

The drop out rate for Los Alamitos is not likely to fill up any online school. Franklin said our drop out rate is less than one half of a percent. “Dropping out of school is primarily a social-economic issue. Where there are large pockets of poverty and ethnic minorities typically is where the dropout rates are higher.”

Franklin said “If kids have dropped out of school, they don’t just need the academic stuff. They need some social contact with caring adults who are going to help them get on track. A purely online program rarely is successful with kids who have traditionally struggled with school.”

Franklin indicated the district is gathering information about online education. He said “We’re interested in online education because we want to provide as many opportunities for kids as we can, not because we want to create an online high school.”