Spark Charter School Tragedy caused by lax County Office of Education oversight
Parents and the media seemed surprised when Spark Charter School in Sunnyvale was forced to temporarily close down after one of its students was molested by staff person Jonathan Chow. The school had failed to keep the required background checks or TB tests for the majority of its employees. Sadly, the County Office of Education failed in it’s fiduciary responsibility to hold charters accountable, and this preventable tragedy should send a huge wake up call. The parents of the student are filing suit against both Spark Academy and the County Office of Education.
The County board of education ignored the warning signs of this impending tragedy.
The Sunnyvale Unified School District Board, denied the charter, citing a number of serious problems. When the Santa Clara County School Board approved the charter on a 4 – 3 vote, several of the Board members echoed those concerns.
Members of the County School Board questioned the validity of numerous aspects of the Spark petition including the financial analysis presented, the Special Education program, the English Learner program, and the testing of low-achieving students. When County School Board Members asked former Chief Strategy Officer Toni Cordova for her assessment, she stated that she did not believe the Spark Board of Directors or the school administrators had “the depth of experience in education or charter schools” necessary to “launch an education program.” In voting against approval, both Trustee Chang and Green expressed disappointment that a six-year effort had produced a petition they could not approve. Trustee Song, who also voted against the petition, was more pointed when she directly asked parent leaders what would happen if the school was approved and then failed. The Spark parents dismissed her questions insisting that they had the expertise to open and maintain a school despite the petition’s flaws.
The four trustees who voted to approve Spark Charter also had their concerns. Trustee Mah asked that the school be given a time-line to verify that the conditions stated in the petition were met. Trustee Beauchman insisted that there be an “educational leader” to guide the school since an Executive Director had yet to be hired. Trustee Di Salvo worried that he “might be setting a school and the Spark Charter School Tragedy caused by lax County Office of Education oversight:
