St. Hope superintendent commits to transparency, building community trust | Opinion

At St. HOPE Public Schools, we have so many things to be proud of and to celebrate. We also know that, like any school district, we have areas to improve on, and we continually strive to strengthen our school operations, increase transparency and further elevate student outcomes.

Sacramento Charter High School and PS7 Elementary School, in the heart of Oak Park, serve a unique population of scholars, the majority of whom come from diverse and traditionally underserved communities.

Each year, more than 95% of our Sac High seniors graduate eligible for University of California admission (a rigorous college-prep standard above basic California high school graduation standards), and our scholars are accepted to universities throughout the country. In fact, 97% of Sac High’s Class of 2025 was accepted to four-year universities, and, collectively, our seniors received 420 college acceptances from 31 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 19 California State University campuses and eight University of California campuses.

We offer a dual enrollment program in partnership with Sacramento City College, where college professors come to Sac High two days a week and scholars take classes for both high school and college credit. We are increasing our college offerings in the 2025-26 school year to 10 college courses, and we have expanded the program so that all of our scholars in grades 9-12 can apply to participate.

When school starts this August, our elementary school scholars will enter a brand new, fully modernized and renovated PS7 Elementary campus on Strawberry Lane. St. HOPE Public Schools invested $30 million to create a state-of-the-art learning facility for our TK-5th grade scholars.

Notably, we invested significant resources to transform a property owned by the Sacramento City Unified School District. This is a huge win for the South Oak Park community — an area that has not experienced the same revitalization as other areas of Sacramento.

Unlike most TK and kindergarten classes at other public schools, our TK program spans a full day, from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., with an after-school option that goes until 6:00 p.m. This is an important benefit for many of our working families.

At all our schools, we have an inclusion program for students with disabilities — this means we use co-teaching methodologies that place special education scholars in general education classrooms and a special education staff member provides students support in their core classes.

While there are many more successes to share, we also know there is more work to do, and we are committed to rolling up our sleeves and getting it done. We recognize that trust must be earned. That’s why we’re committed to working with the Sacramento City Unified School District to ensure there is proper legal oversight and accountability. To date, we have already made significant updates to our operations, including adopting over 20 recommendations from SCUSD, including governance, operational, fiscal, academic and staffing changes.

We invite the community to see the full picture — one of hope, determination and a relentless belief in the potential of every scholar we serve — and to come see our education in action.