Christine Kuglen scoops up a paper cup from the muddy yard where children at Innovations Academy play in the shadow of a thundering highway. Since Innovations moved to this campus -- a beige office building in the middle of Fashion Valley -- the CEO has become the janitor, too.
She is also going without a paycheck, along with the program coordinator. Kuglen and her colleagues started the school just a year ago and have struggled to keep up their labor of love, an eclectic school where there is no homework and children choose what to study. They cut classroom assistants, froze spending and salaries and even cut a phone line to save $5 a month.
"We just keep walking through the fire," Kuglen said as she strolled through the halls, strewn with dirt and litter she hasn't had a chance to clean yet. "We do it because we know this is an amazing school."
Charter schools have touted their freedoms as an edge over traditional public schools. Independently run and publicly funded, they can set their budgets, choose their curricula and hire their staff. But as the state slashes budgets, charters also have headaches that other schools don't.