La Mesa charter school at risk of closing
LA MESA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — The La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board voted unanimously to issue a notice of violation to Sparrow Academy over concerns about its finances, facilities and more.
But the school’s director says they’ve been working on addressing the issues in recent months.
The charter school in La Mesa welcomes about 330 K through 8 students.
Michelle D’Augusta became the school’s executive director in November — its third director in three years.
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“Given that, things get missed,” said D’Augusta, “and that has been my priority since the beginning, in the last four months making sure that any of the district’s concerns, all of the district’s concerns are addressed.”
In a letter to Sparrow Academy last week, La Mesa-Spring Valley Superintendent David Feliciano wrote, “the district has serious concerns regarding the viability of sparrow academy operating under these materially different conditions.”
D’Augusta says she was disappointed and surprised to get the notice.
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“The reason I was surprised is because we had been working toward remedying many of the things that were mentioned in the notice of violation.”
The district noted the facility does not have enough room for all its students. Sparrow Academy has makeshift classrooms in the school gymnasium, with dividers serving as classroom walls. The district said one of the classrooms in the gym created disability access issues because it could only be accessed by stairs.
The district also said Sparrow violated special education laws. The school discovered in December that one of its two special education teachers lacked a special education credential when worked there, violating federal and state law.
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“We had to release the teacher and now we’re working towards solutions with those families to make amends for that happening,” D’Augusta said.
She says many of the issues stem from years of mismanagement before her time.
The school has until April 19 to prove it has properly addressed all the issues identified. Then the district will decide whether to continue with revoking Sparrow’s charter.
“I want to have some direct communication with the district about what exactly they are expecting at that time,” said D’Augusta, “and I want to be really cautious and careful to address every concern they have so that they don’t move forward with our ramification.”
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