This charter school wants to focus on dyslexic students. But will the county allow it?

A charter school whose curriculum would focus on the needs of dyslexic students won’t open for this school year after the Fresno County Office of Education rejected its petition.

Augustus Academy for Creative Arts and Technology had already been turned down on its original petition at Central Unified, but filed an appeal with the county in May.

The board voted unanimously Thursday. Augustus has the option to appeal the decision to the state, but the school would not be able to open this school year.

Kelly English, director of Augustus Academy, told the board that 100 students were looking forward to starting school at Augustus next month. She said the school will not appeal to the state, but instead reach out to all the students who expressed interest to have them enroll in the Maverick academic program that she currently helps run.

“We might come back and tug on your ear again,” English said to the board.

English said the school’s program would be especially helpful for dyslexic students, but that everyone can benefit from learning their way.

The “milk truck rule” is one example, she said. Instead of the classic “i comes before e, except after c” rule, it teaches students to only use “ck” after short vowel sounds.

“Learning this way, it doesn’t hurt a non-dyslexic student. It’s just more information to have,” English said.

The school would use the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach students how to process words, according to English. It’s best applied in a small classroom setting — something public schools can’t always provide.

English, who is dyslexic herself and has spent the last nine years assessing students with dyslexia, describes the learning disability as a language processing disorder that leads students to confuse letters like p and q with numbers like 6 and 9.

“It all really just looks like a ball and a stick, and the ball and stick change places, and the dyslexic student thinks, ‘Are you kidding me?’” English said.

Dyslexic students have struggled even more as schools move away from oral presentations like book reports and toward the word problems demanded by Common Core, English said.

Dyslexia has been found to affect 5 to 10 percent (some estimates say up to 17 percent) of the population. English said this means approximately five to six kids in every classroom are dyslexic, whether they have been diagnosed or not.

“Hollywood is full of dyslexics, but unfortunately so is our prison system,” English said. “If a student isn’t getting the validation they need in the classroom, they’ll seek it elsewhere.”

Caity Heim, spokeswoman for the California Charter Schools Association, said the group did not have an opinion on Augustus’ petition, but called English a passionate educator who cares about students with special needs.

“As Kelly’s petition for Augustus Academy is reviewed by the Fresno County Office of Education, we respect whatever decision they make and have faith in their abilities as the authorizer,” Heim said.

The county’s charter review team found that the school presents an unsound educational program and is unlikely to implement it successfully, according to criteria set forth by the education code.

The board also brought up the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandate that special needs students be educated in the least restrictive environment possible, which includes exposure to general education curriculum and students. A school with a special needs-focused curriculum runs the risk of having a disproportionate number of special education students and violating IDEA.

The review also took issue with the school’s “confusing” budget, calling its proposed salary and health benefits for teachers on the low end.

This story was originally published July 17, 2018 at 8:01 AM with the headline "This charter school wants to focus on dyslexic students. But will the county allow it?."