The Charter School Capital team sends congratulations to Olive Grove Charter School’s expansion in San Luis Obispo, California. Open since the beginning of the 2016/17 school year, this learning center joins Olive Grove’s five other Southern California locations.
Olive Grove Charter Schools have roughly 300 students enrolled including a mixture of home-schooled and independent study students. The mission of Olive Grove Charter School is to plan, monitor, and assist in the education of students K-12 in a home or blended school learning environment enabling them to speak, read, write, use technology, and calculate effectively to become self-motivated, competent, and life-long learners. The Olive Grove Charter Schools will provide students with the necessary resources to achieve success and meet state standards in core academic subjects appropriate to their level. Additionally, students will become career/college ready upon completion of the program. This will be achieved in a collaborative effort with parents as primary deliverers of the educational program, certificated teachers and the community.
Charter School Capital is excited to work with Olive Grove to meet their expansion goals by utilizing our working capital that aids in charter school financing.
“I have been working with Laura Mudge and her team at Olive Grove for almost a year to make this happen,” explained Donna Kopman, Client Relationship Manager at Charter School Capital. “We are so happy to see all their hard work come to fruition and see the positive outcomes from our charter school financing tools.”
You can read more about Olive Grove Charter Schools’ expansion in a recent article from The Tribune and images below of Olive Grove students.
Month: October 2016
What’s the latest in digital marketing today for charter schools? How are you using digital marketing to benefit your student engagement and enrollment?
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The Charter School Capital team congratulates IDEA Public Schools on winning the 2016 Broad Prize. The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools is awarded to Charter Management Organization (CMOs) honors the public charter management organization that has demonstrated the best academic outcomes in recent years, particularly for low-income students and students of color.
The award is given out annually at the National Charter School Conference. It includes at $250,000 grant for college-readiness programs at schools run by the winning CMO.
IDEA Public Schools was founded in 2000. The brainchild of Teach for America alumni Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama, IDEA now serves 300,000 students at 51 schools across Texas.
Serving predominately low-income and Hispanic students, IDEA schools have delivered amazing results year-after-year. US News & World Report routinely ranks the CMO’s schools among the nation’s top 500. In addition, IDEA’s College Prep high schools rank in the top 1% of America’s Most Challenging Schools, according to The Washington Post. IDEA’s 2016 graduating class has an impressive 100% college acceptance rate.
IDEA’s founding and development was recently chronicled by author Richard Whitmire in his book, The Founders. Whitmire’s book documents the rise and best practices of the country’s most successful CMOs.
With Election Day coming up on it’s a good time to take a look at the legislative landscape in California. Every seat in the California Assembly, along with half of the seats in the State Senate, will be on the ballot on November 8th.
Nine members of the State Senate terming out of office. An additional State Senator has declined to run for reelection. In the State Assembly, there are 15 members terming out, with two more members running for the State Senate.
All in all, there will be at least a dozen new members of the legislature in 2017. Currently, the Democrats control the Senate with 26 seats. The Republicans hold 14 seats, one of them vacant. In the Assembly, the Democrats control 52 seats, while Republicans hold 28.
With these totals, the Democrats are currently just one seat away from a supermajority in the Senate, and two away in the Assembly. Supermajorities in both houses would give the Democrats the ability to override vetoes by the Governor. It would also allow them to place ‘revenue’ measures on the ballot for voter approval.
Currently, the Democrats are targeting two Republican seats in the Senate, and eight in the Assembly. And with inter-party races becoming more common in the wake of California’s transition to the ‘top two primary system, several other seats feature Democrat vs. Democrat battles.
Below is a rundown of some of the important races being decided in November. Prominent locales in each district are listed (in parentheses). Incumbents names are in bold. Percentages listed represent each candidate’s vote share during the June primary. [Bracketed percentages] represent the total of the vote that went to other Democratic primary candidates. Termed-out legislators are listed in italics.
State Senate Races 2016 – Currently 26 D – 13 R – 1 Vacant
Democrat vs. Democrat Races
3rd Senate District (Davis, Fairfield, Martinez, Napa, Sonoma, Vallejo, Vacaville, Woodland) – Bill Dodd (D) 37.4% vs. Mariko Yamada (D) 29.9%; Wolk
9th Senate District (Albany, Alameda, Berkeley, El Ceritto, Emeryville, Hercules, Oakland, Piedmont, Pinole, Richmond, San Pablo, San Leandro) – Nancy Skinner (D) 47.8% vs. Sandre Swanson (D) 30.5%; Hancock
15th Senate District (Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, San Jose, Saratoga) – Jim Beall (D) 49.4% vs. Nora Campos (D) 26.9%
35th Senate District (Carson, Compton, Gardena, Harbor City, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, South Los Angeles, San Pedro, Torrance) – Steve Bradford (D) 35.6% vs. Warren Furitani (D) 24.4%; Hall
Republican seats targeted by Democrats
21st Senate District (Apple Valley, Hesperia, Lancaster, Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Victorville) – Scott Wilk (R) 46.7% vs. Johnathon Ervin (D) 33.7%; Runner
29th Senate District (Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Chino Hills, Cypress, Diamond Bar, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia, Rowland Heights, Stanton, Walnut, West Corvina, Yorba Linda) – Ling Ling Chang (R) 44% vs. Josh Newman (D) 29.2% [26.8%]; Huff
State Assembly Races 2016 – Currently 52 D – 28 R
Democrat vs. Democrat Races
14th Assembly District (Benicia, Concord Lafayette, Martinez, Pittsburgh, Vallejo, Walnut Creek) – Mae Torlakson (D) 32.3% vs. Tim Grayson (D) 31.6%; Bonilla
27th Assembly District (San Jose) – Madison Nguyen (D) 34.3% vs. Ash Kalra (D) 19.8%; Campos
30th Assembly District (Gilroy, Hollister, Morgan Hills, Salinas, Soledad, Watsonville) – Anna Caballero (D) 46.1% vs. Karina Alejo (D) 26%; Alejo
43rd Assembly District (Burbank, Glendale, La Canada, La Crescenta, Los Angeles) – Laura Friedman (D) 31.9% vs. Ardy Kassakhian (D) 24.3%; Gatto
Republican seats targeted by Democrats
16th Assembly District (Alamo, Danville, Dublin, Lafayette, Livermore, Moraga, Orinda, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Walnut Creek) – Catherine Baker (R) 53.2% vs. Cheryl Cook-Kallio (D) 46.8%
35th Assembly District (Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Lompoc, Paso Robles, Santa Maria) – Dawn Ortiz-Legg (D) 45% vs. Jordan Cunningham (R) 37%; Achadjihan
36th Assembly District (California City, Lancaster, Mojave, Palmdale, Santa Clarita) – Tom Lackey (R) 48.2% vs. Steve Fox (D) 29.6%
38th Assembly District (Canyon Country, Castaic, Chatsworth, Northridge, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley) – Christie Smith (D) 44.7% vs. Dante Acosta (R) 36.2%; Wilk
40th Assembly District (Highland, Loma Linda, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, San Bernadino) – Abigail Medina (D) 51.5% vs. Marc Steinorth (R) 48.5%
60th Assembly District (Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Norco, Riverside) – Eric Lander (R) 45.6% vs. Sabrina Cervantes (D) 41.5% [12.9%]
65th Assembly District (Anaheim, Buena Park, Cerritos, Cypress, Fullerton, La Palma) – Sharon Quirk-Silva (D) 54.3% vs. Young Kim (R) 45.7%
66th Assembly District (Gardena, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Torrance, West Carson) – Al Muratsuchi (D) 48.7% vs. David Hadley (R) 44.6% [6.7%]
The California State Legislature adjourned on August 31st, giving Governor Jerry Brown until September 30th to sign or veto legislation passed during the 2016 session. Governor Brown waited until September 30th to make his final decision on many of the bills before him, including two bills that would have had serious impacts on California charter schools.
By vetoing these bills, Governor Brown once again demonstrated his support of charter schools, and the unique role they play in the California education system.
AB 709 by Assemblyman Mike Gipson would have applied the Brown Act, Public Records Act, the Political Reform Act, and Government Code 1090 to charter schools.
In an effort to force the Governor to sign this bill, the California Teachers Association launched a website and ran radio ads in support of the bill.
In his veto message, Governor Brown noted that he had vetoes similar legislation in 2014. He also stated that AB 709 went too far in dictating how charter school boards operate.
SB 739 by Senator Fran Pavley would have prohibited school districts with negative certification status from approving an out-of-district charter school petition. In August, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee ordered an audit of three schools and their out-of-district authorizers. Those audits will be complete in early 2017.
In his veto message for SB 739, the Governor stated that California should wait until these audits are completed before determining if action is necessary on this issue.
Once again, the charter school community owes the Governor a huge round of applause!
Two other bills that would have negatively impacted charter schools were defeated in the legislature, and did not reach the Governor’s desk. AB 1084 would have prohibited charter schools from operating as, or be managed by, for-profit entities. SB 322 would have prohibited charter school admissions preferences, and would have applied suspension and expulsion laws to charter schools.
To view the language in any of these bills, or to view the Governor’s veto messages, visit the California State Legislative Information website and search for the bill number.