Charter school renewal denied by Sacramento school district. What comes next?
A small Sacramento charter school will have to appeal to the county if it wants to keep its doors open past 2026 after the Sacramento City Unified School District board voted to deny its charter renewal Thursday.
The district identified major concerns with fiscal and academic conditions at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy earlier this year as the school sought charter renewal.
Aspire Capitol Heights is a TK-8 charter school which enrolls about 220 primarily Black and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, only half of which reside in Sacramento City Unified district boundaries. The school is a part of Aspire Public Schools, a network of charter schools with locations in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Los Angeles.
The charter school has been operating in a deficit for the past three years, ending the 2024-25 school year with a negative $5.2 million balance.
Students at the school are not performing well either — only 13% and 7% of students met state standards in English language arts and math this year, respectively, with little to no growth over the past several years. The district has also voiced concerns about the school’s high chronic absentee and suspension rates, which each put the school in the red category of California’s school accountability system.
District charter administrator Amanda Goldman sent the school a notice of correction Sept. 12, to which the school responded with a corrective action plan in October.
Despite vocal support from Aspire Capitol Heights families and a concerted effort from school leaders to prove that the school’s fiscal and academic issues could be solved, the board voted 4-1 to deny the school’s charter renewal.
Trustee April Ybarra referenced the district’s own fiscal issues, which have caused the Sacramento County Office of Education to intervene, before voting to deny the charter, saying “we have to worry about SCOE and fixing our own financial mess.”
Aspire Capitol Heights can continue operating through 2026, when its charter is set to expire. The school can submit a petition for renewal with SCOE within 30 days.
