November 8, 2012

Trustees of the Alameda County Board of Education 313 West Winton Avenue Hayward, CA 94544 Dear Trustees, I am writing to ask you to deny the Portola Academy Petition, which is on your agenda for the November 13th meeting, for the following reasons: 1) Tri-Valley Learning Corp (TVLC) has made little or no effort to integrate their existing campus (Livermore Valley Charter School). Since inception, LVCSs student population doesnt come anywhere near to representing the demographics of the City of Livermore. I am including a demographic document from LVCSs own charter renewal petition which shows that Hispanic/Latino students only make up 11% of the charter school population, versus 27% in our unified school district. To further exacerbate that situation, TVLC is opening a new campus for its existing LVCS students which is located approximately 4 miles away from the current campus and requires students to cross a freeway to access that facility. It seems clear to me that this move is not made for the ease of access or convenience of lower-income students, whos only means of transportation is by foot. I believe that the proposed Portola Academy is a way for TVLC to segregate a population of ELLs in a separate campus. I can only conclude this because TVLC has not made any effort to increase its diversity at its existing LVCS campus in the 5 years of its existence. 2) There is nothing unique being offered at the proposed Portola Academy that students cant already get at district schools, specifically at Junction Avenue K-8 School, which serves the exact same neighborhood as the proposed Academy. Junction Avenue K-8 is an existing dual-emersion district school that has been doing a wonderful job educating the ethnically diverse population in its residence area, and one could argue that Portola Academys model is the same as Junctions. It appears to me that TVLC just wants to copy that model under their leadership to improve their overall demographic numbers.

3) The management of Portola Academy is the same management as the LVCS and that group has not been paying their bills to the district in a timely and responsible fashion. I can only speculate about the reason for this action as one of the following: a. Either they dont have the money to pay the bills and therefore do not have adequate funds to open another charter school. b. They have the money, but make a choice to withhold those funds for their own students, at the expense of district students.

I would like to make it very clear that I am not against all Charter Schools. I have worked tirelessly to promote and support public education. This includes being on the leadership team of two successful parcel tax measures and lobbying in Sacramento for funding equalization. However, this petition is particularly upsetting because Portola Academy doesnt offer anything that doesnt already exist within our district. Portola Academy would only detract from the opportunities available to existing LVJUSD students and serve to further segregate LVCSs students into two different facilities, and I am sure that this is not the intent of Charter School law. To use public school money to create segregated facilities is sickening to me. As you may be aware, there is a current lawsuit that is pending in Santa Clara County Superior Court (Los Altos School District vs. Bullis Charter School) that is challenging the existence of charter schools whose main purpose is to attract high performing students away from existing school districts. These schools are attractive to parents who wish to shield their students from the populations at large. Additionally, I would like to refer you to a recent UCLA Report Choice without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards, where research discusses the dangers of charter schools and their lack of equal access and representation1. As members of the Alameda County Board of Education, I feel strongly that it is your roll to represent ALL students, not just the elite and privileged. I implore you to deny the petition for Portola Academy and encourage you to contact me if you have any further questions. Sincerely

Paula Orrell 1531 Klondike Place Livermore, CA 94550 (925)-449-4804

Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G., Wang, J. (2010). Choice without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA; www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu.