Sac High keeps charter

Kevin Johnson's St. HOPE Corp. received permission Thursday night to run Sacramento Charter High School for another five years when the Sacramento City Unified school board voted 6-1 to renew the school's charter.

Cheers rang throughout the crowded meeting room after the board cast its vote.

Crowds of parents, teachers and students clad in purple stood up to applaud the board.

"I have a very heartfelt hope that the limited ongoing negativity that seems to continue toward this charter will end," said board member Karen Young, "and that instead of that, we will celebrate the successes … that are happening at the Sac High charter school."

An hour later, at 11 p.m., St. HOPE gained a second victory when the board voted to place the so-called "consent decree" high school on the campus of the former Marian Anderson Elementary.

That school, required by a legal settlement between the Sacramento City Unified School District and St. HOPE opponents, is supposed to become a neighborhood school for the areas served by Sacramento High before it became a charter school.

Many parents lobbied the board to put the consent decree school on the Sacramento High campus. They said the 6-acre Marian Anderson campus is too small to hold a comprehensive high school.

"We do not support the Marian Anderson site," said Brain Augusta. "It's clear to us that this program is being pursued simply for political expediency. There is nothing about this campus that would cause any parent in your school district to choose it."

The board voted 4-2 to put the consent decree school at Marian Anderson.

Ellyne Bell, who was the only board member to oppose the charter renewal, recused herself from voting on the consent decree school because she was a litigant in the lawsuit that led to its creation.

Board members Roy Grimes and Miguel Navarrette opposed the Marian Anderson plan.

St. HOPE supporters were the only audience members to speak favorably about placing the consent decree school at Marian Anderson, a former elementary school near Stockton Boulevard and Broadway that now houses programs for children with special needs. The decision would protect Sacramento High, they said.

"We deserve the right to have stability in our environment and not have to question where we will be from year to year," said P.K. Diffenbaugh, co-principal of Sacramento Charter High.

Parents, teachers and even the litigants who filed the suit against the district over the conversion of Sacramento High into a charter all said the Marian Anderson site made no sense.

"It's an inadequate and poor location," said Kate Lenox, one of the parents who sued the district over its decision to give Sacramento High to St. HOPE. "Why would a kid want to go to a high school like that?"

She argued that St. HOPE should share the Sacramento Charter High campus with a new school that would not be a charter school.

Other parents have said the board should move St. HOPE elsewhere and turn the historic Oak Park campus back to neighborhood use as a traditional public high school.

The board's approval of the St. HOPE charter is separate from its decision on which campus to offer the school – that issue will be considered in the spring.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall, (916) 321-1083.