Embattled Sacramento area high school faces possible closure over $388K deficit
After years of struggle and declining enrollment, the end could be coming for George Washington Carver School of Arts and Sciences.
On Thursday, the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education is set to consider closing the school at 10101 Systems Parkway in Rancho Cordova, according to a meeting agenda for the board.
Carver, one of five dependent charter schools in the district and a public Waldorf high school, has lost around half of its students in recent years. It has also witnessed a staff exodus and is projected to become insolvent during the 2026-27 school, with a deficit of $388,211. The deficit represents around 15% of the school’s $2.5 million budget.
“Charter schools, under law, are required to be financially solvent because there’s no broader entity to bail them out if they run out of money,” said Amanda Goldman, SCUSD’s director of innovative schools. “So with a charter school, you either have enough money or somebody has to give you more money.”
The district has the option, as outlined in the board’s agenda for Thursday, to give Carver money to help it out of its budget jam. But funds are tight at SCUSD,
Why students and staff have left Carver in recent years
Phil Roberto said he felt terrible about leaving Carver roughly two years ago. Roberto taught art at the school for more than 15 years and helped establish it as a Waldorf school.
“I would have loved nothing more than to do my entire career at Carver,” said Roberto, who now teaches at West Campus in Sacramento. “I bought my house only a mile and a half away from Carver. I’m definitely part of the community.”
He is far from the only person to leave Carver in recent years.
In Roberto’s day, the school had 275 students consistently, with enrollment reaching as many as 325 students. Carver had 150 students as of last week, according to Yvonne Spruell, the school’s registrar. It needs 190 students to generate a small surplus, according to information included in Thursday’s school board agenda.
Spruell blames the enrollment drop on the school’s current leadership.
The principal, LaNiecia Kobelt, said Tuesday that she was “not allowed to talk to the news” without district permission. SCUSD spokesperson Al Goldberg said Kobelt was free speak with the media. A subsequent call to Kobelt went to voicemail.
According to Kobelt’s LinkedIn page, she has been principal of Carver since September 2021, leading the “small, arts-integrated Waldorf-inspired high school through fiscal hardship, staffing transitions, and community rebuilding.”
Roberto said he was one of the teachers who left because of Kobelt. He said the same 12 teachers were at the school for more than a decade, but within a year of Kobelt becoming principal, eight teachers departed and enrollment fell from 270 to 168.
“She would not let me speak in meetings,” Roberto said about Kobelt. “Every time I spoke, she would interrupt me and cut me off. So I stopped sharing, I stopped speaking.”
Roberto cited Kobelt’s management style as one of the reasons for Carver’s decline in enrollment, but not the only factor. He noted that secondary schools statewide have drawn fewer students since the pandemic, with more students opting for independent study.
Others who’ve left Carver in recent years have also clashed with Kobelt.
Maryna Kravchuk, a Carver alum, worked as an office technician at the school for about a year. She left last November. “She may have had good intentions in a way,” Kravchuk said of Kobelt. “But she was very disorganized. It was kind of very hard to see a project through with her.”
Kelli Hirabayashi used to do campus security for Carver before moving to Rosemont High School. She criticized the principal for a range of factors including poor communication and playing favorites.
The Waldorf approach emphasizes individualized learning with an emphasis on the arts and hands-on outdoor learning activities, according the Waldorf Education website.
Under Kobelt’s watch the school renewed its Waldorf charter, but some have questioned the school’s ability to live up to the standards of the Waldorf system.
Rochelle Reed ran Carver’s after-school program through a nonprofit during the 2024-25 academic year. She said Kobelt declined to bring her back at the end of the school year and she now works at a different school.
Reed had previously taught at another Waldorf-oriented Sacramento school for several years and had trained with Kobelt’s predecessor and longtime Carver principal Allegra Alessandri Pfeifer. What Reed saw when she got to Carver struck her.
“Waldorf education wasn’t happening,” Reed said.
‘A good school that’s needed by certain students’
The agenda for SCUSD’s board meeting on Thursday presents three options for Carver: closure, which would take effect June 30; allowing Carver to operate for the 2026-27 school year, with SCUSD potentially contributing $200,000 to $400,000; and deferring the decision, which isn’t recommended.
Current and former staff interviewed for this story have generally resigned themselves to the fact that Carver will shut down.
“I am really saddened to say that I think it will be closing, and I think it’s really in the best interest,” Reed said. “It cannot be a Waldorf school, that’s for sure.”
To this point, Carver has drawn students from different geographic areas, with an ability to help students who’ve had behavioral issues.
The district surveyed parents of Carver students about what they would if the school closed. Of the 76 students who live within SCUSD limits, only 15 were likely to attend the school near their homes.
“The school is actually really wonderful,” Spruell said of Carver. “It’s a good school that’s needed by certain students who can’t fit in at those bigger, comprehensive high schools.”
Reed is passionate about Waldorf education.
“I’m a firm believer in the model of meeting young people where they’re at developmentally and guiding them and learning with them,” Reed said.
Kravchuk said she was saddened, noting she had a daughter who is entering middle school. She isn’t surprised Carver could close, though she also hasn’t lost all hope.
“I just really hope you know that it can be brought back as a good school for the community and for the students in the area,” Kravchuk said. “Because I know it can be a good school for them.”
