Sacramento trustees OK St. Hope agreement despite ‘half-truths, false promises’
After months of delay and negotiations, Sacramento City Unified School District reached an operating agreement with St. Hope Public Schools Thursday night that will guide their relationship through 2030.
District officials made it clear that the approval of the memorandum of understanding is a floor, not a ceiling in terms of the oversight the charter school will see from now on, given the fraught process of negotiations and a deteriorated level of trust between the two entities.
During a board discussion trustees did not hold back about their concerns with St. Hope operations, calling out transparency issues among leaders and ongoing issues with school culture that have resulted in high teacher turnover.
“I met with their leaders in good faith and with an open mind — it seems like that approach was wrong,” Trustee Taylor Kayatta said. “My good faith and open mind were met with half-truths, false promises and backroom schemes. I approached this renewal from a place of trust, transparency and honesty, but I was met with the opposite from St. Hope.”
St. Hope Public Schools is still subject to a corrective action plan in response to the district’s July 2024 notice to correct various alleged fiscal- and governance-related violations. District officials say the charter school has cleaned up their finances and has better defined the scope of services offered by associated nonprofits St. Hope Academy and St. Hope Development Company, in addition to actions like amending board bylaws and improving transparency surrounding their board meetings.
“We look forward to the next step in this process, which is working with the district on that kind of continued monthly corrective action meetings of oversight,” Jim Scheible, another interim leader at St. Hope, said. “So that’s where the concrete results are going to come, and I think we’ll be able to cut through some of the subjective noise, the talking about the same thing, but kind of talking past each other.”
The district is likely to ensure additional oversight by issuing another notice to correct, this time focusing on outcomes rather than prescribed actions, district staff said. Trustee Michael Benjamin, appointed liaison to St. Hope, said that he plans to appoint a trustee to the charter school board, which is allowed in the school’s charter agreement.
But for now, the mutually agreed upon MOU marks a milestone in the two entities’ protracted negotiations over the terms of their working relationship.
“I am glad that the SCUSD Board approved the MOU with St. HOPE Public Schools,” St. Hope Interim Superintendent Elisha Ferguson Parsons said. “The agreement reflects months of hard work and collaboration between staff, the SHPS Board and the SCUSD Board to find common ground that puts into place appropriate oversight that is realistic and can be implemented.”
SCUSD board frustrated with St. Hope leadership
SCUSD charter administrator Amanda Goldman and legal counsel Leslie Lacher recommended the district approve the MOU as a first step of many in overseeing the school.
At the end of a long meeting teeming with somber conversations about the district’s budget crisis, several trustees unleashed their frustrations with the charter.
“(St. Hope is), in fact, a series of interrelated businesses that are propped up by education funding that should be going to these kids,” Kayatta said. “This is one of the many issues they have yet to correct. Throughout this process, St. Hope has shown a shocking lack of insight into the problems of how they operate.”
Kayatta was also frustrated with district staff, saying that the MOU they were voting on did not align with the direction they gave when it was last publicly discussed over the summer.
He said that the only reason he was planning to vote yes instead of favoring charter revocation was because he trusted Trustee Michael Benjamin, who was a part of the charter negotiations.
Benjamin gave a statement about the MOU, saying that it represents a commitment by the charter school to improve campus conditions for students and staff members while also recognizing the ongoing problems at the school, like pay and classroom conditions for teachers.
“This is a school that’s designed to serve and teach the most marginalized students, which means that the investment that goes into this has to be the biggest investment we can,” Benjamin said. “Everybody knows that in education, the most money you spend is on faculty and staff. And so you have to pay your teachers.”
Trustee April Ybarra asked why they did not have an update to the second investigation into allegations that coach Kimbbie Drayton partied with students, saying she found it “hard to trust the folks who are willing to defend” him. In talking more broadly about her lack of trust of administrators, Ybarra called out Ferguson Parsons by name.
“(The night) I pulled this from consent agenda, I walked out of this building, and Elisha Ferguson made it a point to tell me in the parking lot that she wanted to have a relationship,” she said. “But her lack of wanting to be authentic and truthful in these spaces does not demonstrate that, and it’s unfortunate that she’s not here to hear this.”
Ferguson Parsons, who did not attend Thursday’s meeting, wrote in an email that she was disappointed by some of the comments made at the meeting.
“Throughout the entire charter renewal process, especially now in my current role as Interim Superintendent, I have been wholeheartedly committed to ensuring SHPS operates on a strong footing, has measurable outcomes that demonstrate student success, and that we re-establish trust with SCUSD,” she wrote. “I have repeatedly invited SCUSD Board Members to meet with me, talk to our staff, scholars, and parents, and tour our campuses. To date, their interest in getting to know SHPS has been minimal at best. I’m deeply disappointed by some of the comments that were made at the board meeting last night and look forward to re-establishing a productive relationship with SCUSD.”
Scheible said that he gets the trustees’ frustration, but St. Hope officials want everything that the district is advocating for as well and that they are working toward these goals. For example, the charter school has significantly reduced the number of teachers working from emergency credentials, from 43% to 22% within a couple years, which has come at the cost of losing teachers and raising the turnover rate. He also said that the school is providing financial support for those who are working toward their credentials, offering as much as a $16,000 reimbursement.
What did SCUSD and St. Hope agree to?
SCUSD and St. Hope negotiated four main areas of the MOU. The new language requires the charter school to have an agreement with back-office service providers that affirms the charter school’s contractual right to view, inspect, copy and disclose to the district the financial records associated with the school.
The agreed upon MOU does not require that St. Hope end its relationship with longtime legal counsel Kevin Hiestand, who has long been associated with school founder Kevin Johnson. Hiestand led the investigation into allegations that coach Kimbbie Drayton partied with students.
The St. Hope board rejected this provision when proposed in June, telling the district that they found the item unacceptable, defending their right to retain a lawyer of their choosing.
The current MOU states that all legal matters involving both the charter school and one or more of the related St. Hope nonprofits shall not be handled by the same attorney or law firm. It also says that their lawyer cannot act as an independent investigator for the school cannot also provide legal advice or support to the charter on the same matter.
In terms of investigations, St. Hope is also required to bring its investigation and complaint practices into compliance with legal and SCUSD standards. Goldman made a comment that most independent charter schools in the district would benefit from an improved, streamlined complaint process.
The last major addition governs relations with the school’s labor units, namely its teachers union, which is associated with the district’s teachers association. Lacher said that this was the most difficult area of negotiation. The new MOU requires that the charter school bargain with its labor units in good faith and provide the district copies of materials related to the final contract.
St. Hope educators voted to unionize in 2017 but have yet to reach a contract with St. Hope.
This story was originally published December 19, 2025 at 12:37 PM.
