The Gilroy Unified School District and the parents at Gilroy Prep are learning first-hand how difficult it is to provide any true oversight over Charter Management Organizations. Outraged by the lack of transparency, accountability, and support at Navigator Schools, Gilroy Prep parents are asking for the removal of the charter organization’s Executive Director, James Dent.
Any charter school that wants to franchise its brand of education beyond one school must organize as a Charter Management Organization. California Charter Law enables Charter Management Organizations to exist as non-profit entities with non-elected school boards. In 2010, the Gilroy Unified School District approved Gilroy Prep – its only charter school. Less than a year later, Gilroy Prep leaders formed Navigator Schools, a Charter Management Organization. The Gilroy Prep principal, James Dent, became the Executive Director of Navigator Schools. Recently, Gilroy Prep parents have barraged both the Gilroy Unified School District and Navigator Schools’ board with a series of complaints; neither board seems to have any authority or inclination to listen these parents.
Two former board members (Mr. James Gargiulo and Ray Blanchard), as well an active parent leader, Dr. Sonya Wooolsey, have expressed a multitude of concerns to both the Gilroy and Navigator boards. Their list of complaints against Mr. Dent and the Charter Management Organization includes the following:
1) the lack of support the CMO has for basic instructional needs including reference books and text books,
2) the 20% administrative fee Navigator charges its two schools (Gilroy Prep and Hollister Prep),
3) the lack of parent representation on the present Navigator board,
4) the lack of translation services for Spanish speaking parents,
5) the lack of planning for middle school (6th grade will start in the fall), and
6) the dissatisfaction of employees.
In Woolsey’s letter, written on behalf of 16 other parents, the resignation of Special Education specialist, Karen Humber is noted as a “bellwether indication of deep, systemic problems that galvanized them to the actions you are witnessing now.” The Gilroy Times reported that it was lack of support at the CMO level that caused her to resign from an organization she helped found.
In addition to Dent’s removal, Gilroy Prep parents are asking that each school (Gilroy Prep and Hollister Prep) have elected parent representatives on the Navigator Board. The Gilroy Unified School District has refused to act on parent requests because they have no authority over the Charter Management Organization. Navigator Schools’ Board of Directors has not acted presumably because Mr. Dent appoints the members of his board and they act primarily as a rubber stamp. So, the parents at Gilroy Prep – who exercised their choice for a charter school – have found that when that choice includes a Charter Management Organization they actually lose their voice in their own child’s education.
Gemma Abels is Vice President of Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers
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