Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Encanto charter school, facing shutdown, files lawsuit

San Diego Unified said criteria were not met to stay open

The Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning, inside the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego, located at 6785 Imperial Avenue
The Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning, inside the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego, located at 6785 Imperial Avenue

A charter school in Encanto that serves minority and underprivileged children is suing the San Diego Unified School District for wrongfully revoking its charter, resulting in the displacement of 172 elementary-school children.

Twin sisters Shelia Malveaux and Celia Walker opened the Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning in Encanto in 2011. They named the charter school after their grandmother, as is chronicled in a 2011 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Before opening the school, the sisters, along with a friend, founded a free tutoring program for underperforming students. The program eventually evolved into the idea for the Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Since opening, the school has drawn students from across Southeast San Diego and neighboring cities. During the 2014/2015 school year, enrollment at the institute was 172 students. Of those students, 59 percent were African-American, 27 percent Hispanic, 17 percent were in foster care, and 19 percent of students had some type of disability. A majority — 85 percent — of students qualified for free or reduced-cost lunches.

Problems arose for the Evangeline Roberts school shortly after trustees from the San Diego Unified School District voted to renew the charter's petition in February 2015. As part of the five-year renewal, San Diego Unified required the school to meet eight criteria. Among them included renewing their registration as a nonprofit with the state and meeting performance benchmarks in math, science, and English. The district gave the charter until June 15, 2016, to meet the terms; if it failed to meet just one, the school would be forced to "voluntarily surrender" its petition.

According to the lawsuit, the requirements violated the law by giving district staff, and not the elected boardmembers, the authority to make final judgments on the opening and closing of charter schools.

"The district was in a position of power...and used this power to impose the harsh and unlawful condition that the school 'voluntarily surrender' if district staff determines any of the outcomes were not satisfied," reads the lawsuit. "This condition was a waiver of the revocation procedures and protections in the [Charter School Act], and placed absolute judgment to close a public school in the hands of district staff without any action from the governing board of [the school district]."

And, the suit claims, even if the agreement was just, the school did meet the criteria, just not to staff's satisfaction. For example, renewal of its nonprofit status, delayed at the state level, was accomplished in May, ten weeks after the staff's deadline. As for the seven other criteria, the school claims it met all of them and it was district staff who failed to verify the performance measures.

The school is asking a judge place an injunction on the district to prevent it from closing down the school.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class
The Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning, inside the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego, located at 6785 Imperial Avenue
The Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning, inside the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego, located at 6785 Imperial Avenue

A charter school in Encanto that serves minority and underprivileged children is suing the San Diego Unified School District for wrongfully revoking its charter, resulting in the displacement of 172 elementary-school children.

Twin sisters Shelia Malveaux and Celia Walker opened the Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning in Encanto in 2011. They named the charter school after their grandmother, as is chronicled in a 2011 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Before opening the school, the sisters, along with a friend, founded a free tutoring program for underperforming students. The program eventually evolved into the idea for the Evangeline Roberts Institute of Learning.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Since opening, the school has drawn students from across Southeast San Diego and neighboring cities. During the 2014/2015 school year, enrollment at the institute was 172 students. Of those students, 59 percent were African-American, 27 percent Hispanic, 17 percent were in foster care, and 19 percent of students had some type of disability. A majority — 85 percent — of students qualified for free or reduced-cost lunches.

Problems arose for the Evangeline Roberts school shortly after trustees from the San Diego Unified School District voted to renew the charter's petition in February 2015. As part of the five-year renewal, San Diego Unified required the school to meet eight criteria. Among them included renewing their registration as a nonprofit with the state and meeting performance benchmarks in math, science, and English. The district gave the charter until June 15, 2016, to meet the terms; if it failed to meet just one, the school would be forced to "voluntarily surrender" its petition.

According to the lawsuit, the requirements violated the law by giving district staff, and not the elected boardmembers, the authority to make final judgments on the opening and closing of charter schools.

"The district was in a position of power...and used this power to impose the harsh and unlawful condition that the school 'voluntarily surrender' if district staff determines any of the outcomes were not satisfied," reads the lawsuit. "This condition was a waiver of the revocation procedures and protections in the [Charter School Act], and placed absolute judgment to close a public school in the hands of district staff without any action from the governing board of [the school district]."

And, the suit claims, even if the agreement was just, the school did meet the criteria, just not to staff's satisfaction. For example, renewal of its nonprofit status, delayed at the state level, was accomplished in May, ten weeks after the staff's deadline. As for the seven other criteria, the school claims it met all of them and it was district staff who failed to verify the performance measures.

The school is asking a judge place an injunction on the district to prevent it from closing down the school.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The vicious cycle of Escondido's abandoned buildings

City staff blames owners for raising rents
Next Article

Why did Harrah's VP commit suicide last summer?

Did the fight the Rincon casino had with San Diego County over Covid play a part?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader