Sanger school dropping charter status. Do parents know what it means for students?

Since their kindergarten year, many students living in Fresno and across the Central Valley have attended a homeschool program in Sanger because the hybrid education works for them.

Other students like Aranveer Litt started while in high school because he was failing and not getting the support he needed at his traditional school.

He transferred to Sanger’s Hallmark Charter School, which has at-home and optional in-person instruction in small classes that allow individualized, one-on-one teaching. All of which helped him succeed to now be a master’s degree student at Syracuse.

The school’s charter status has allowed it to enroll students from all around California’s central San Joaquin Valley without going through an interdistrict transfer process – a process that 102 students will have to use after Hallmark’s charter status is removed.

Hallmark K-12 Charter School is dropping its charter status, starting the 2023-24 school year, and will merge with the K-12 independent study program, Taft Academy.

District officials said the move was necessary after years of declining enrollment at Hallmark Charter School, but not everyone thinks it’s a good idea.

“As a teacher, I believe that every student should have access to different forms of education,” said six-year math intervention teacher Gurleen Litt.

And district leaders said they feel the same about student access.

The Sanger Unified School District said everything about the program would remain the same even though the school would no longer have charter school status.

“They created a problem that they already had a solution for,” Litt said about the proposal to merge Hallmark and Taft but eliminate Hallmark’s charter.

She said removing the charter will decrease enrollment – the problem – for the district to fix by merging the schools.

Currently, 252 students are enrolled at Hallmark, including 102 students that don’t live within Sanger Unified boundaries.

Taft’s enrollment hovers at nearly 500 currently.

“More students are going to be able to access that school with all of its amazing programs,” said Cary Catalano, the district’s spokesperson. “Nobody is going to be turned away. No program is going away. We want everyone to have equitable access.”

How merger will change schools: resources, access

Students at Hallmark take homeschool classes through Independent Study at their own pace with a daily choice to attend in-person science and math-enrichment classes. Students also have opportunities for one-on-one math intervention and help from their “homeroom” teachers.

Parent and 2004 graduate Sara Florez said Hallmark is a program “that many students from many areas can partake in and have a very rigorous program yet still have time to hone their skills in sports, arts, and music.”

She is one of many opposed to the charter losing its status.

An online petition, Save Sanger Hallmark Charter School, garnered almost 600 signatures as of midday Friday and dozens of online comments about how important the charter school is.

“My daughters have so benefited from the unique culture, structure, and academic focus of Hallmark Charter,” one commenter said. “This move is completely detrimental to the success that has been Hallmark Charter.”

Taft’s independent study program is not homeschooling like Hallmark but rather a virtual learning model where students and teachers work together online daily.

Adding those students will strain Hallmark’s already limited resources, Litt said.

“We’re here to do whatever we can to provide our students with the best education possible, whether that’s bringing in donuts on a bad day or talking to someone who’s upset,” Litt said.

That small setting allows her to get to know her students and learn the best way to encourage, empower and educate them.

Thinking back to her own high school experience, she didn’t talk about college and career prospects with her educators.

That’s a conversation she said she has at least weekly with students, especially because Hallmark’s schedule flexibility allows students to take college classes while enrolled.

Nothing changes at Sanger’s Hallmark school except class sizes, district says

Nothing is going to change programmatically for Hallmark, Superintendent Adela Jones said.

Jones has been with the district for 36 years, including her four years as superintendent and three years as assistant superintendent, in addition to her classroom experience.

“The merging of the two as a school -of choice for our families allows all students to access what was traditionally funded through the charter-funded program.”

Under the name Hallmark Academy, the merged school will still have:

• Hallmark’s traditional homeschooling with one-hour advisory
• Hallmark’s hybrid program with split classes and one-hour advisory
• Hallmark’s on-campus enrichment courses and on-campus tutorial
• Taft’s virtual instruction via Zoom for K-8 students
• Taft’s Independent Study with advisory and in-person tutorials

Hallmark’s homeschooling, rigorous curriculum, music, art, enrichment classes, tutorials, and lab science programs will continue, but with Taft students having access to them, she said.

Families would choose between Hallmark’s homeschool option and Taft’s virtual programming that logs on for classes at scheduled times throughout the day.

“This offers more choices for our students and our families,” Jones said.

Because Hallmark is a Sanger Unified school, staff will remain SUSD employees.

The charter school’s Local Control Accountability Program dollars will now be a part of the district’s funding to support the SUSD initiatives at Hallmark.

Litt started the school year as one of at least three part-time math intervention teachers, a model the school was utilizing so that each student could come to intervention for the one-on-one help they needed, even if there were at least 15 students in the class at a time.

Funding-wise, Sanger can’t afford to keep the charter open for around a dozen students in class at a time, Jones said.

Because the classes will remain a choice, class sizes will remain small, but more students will have the option of being there.

“There were never enough dollars in that LCAP (as a charter school) to support literacy teachers, intervention teachers, and student advocates,” Jones said.

There are several reasons behind the decision to dissolve the charter, Jones said, including:

• Enrollment, which was evaluated at all schools in January
• Streamlining business operations for both programs
• Allowing more equity and access to both programs

For several years, Taft’s enrollment has increased as Hallmark’s has decreased.

For example, Hallmark’s 2004-05 enrollment was 582 compared to current enrollment at 252, Jones said about enrollment data.

Parents and administrators have asked for a chance to get enrollment up, and the district has worked with school-level administration to try and do that, dating back to the previous superintendent.

“We’re proud of the program,” Jones said. “Hallmark is not great because it’s a charter; Hallmark is great because of the people there and the program they’ve developed.

“And that’s not going away.”

Why charter status is important to parents

Without the charter status, out-of-district families must enroll through an interdistrict transfer, something that both Sanger and the other district must approve, leaving parents wary.

Sanger school officials listened to parent concerns about the difficulty in obtaining those transfers and extended the charter until next school year to give families more time to work with their districts.

Four hundred Sanger students are enrolled through interdistrict transfers already, according to Jones.

The 102 Hallmark students who live outside the SUSD district will be required to apply for an interdistrict transfer.

Sanger’s child, welfare, and attendance supervisor has reached out to neighboring districts about those families to help in that process, Jones said.

Florez’ tenth grade student has been at Hallmark Charter since kindergarten, and she got emotional about the pressure, stress, and uncertainty of filing a transfer on district deadlines and awaiting approval.

“I’m thinking about 10 years down the road,” Florez said. “Are there going to be any children allowed to make an interdistrict transfer and be allowed to go to this school?”

Communicating change to all stakeholders

Based on evaluating enrollment at the district’s schools, leadership made the merger decision in early April, then sent a letter to families in both programs.

It wasn’t done in secret, and there was parent involvement, Catalano said.

Since the April 7 letter, the superintendent has met twice with full-time staff and twice with parents — an in-person meeting on April 20 and a virtual meeting the following day.

It was during those recent meetings that many parents first learned their students would have to apply for interdistrict transfers. Florez noted the district’s April 7 letter mentioned merging and changing the school name, and didn’t mention transfers.

“Most of the parents do not know because the administration will not send out a letter, stating ‘We will drop the charter, and here are all the repercussions,’” she said about the desire to know the pros and cons. “Why aren’t they sharing those cons with us?”

The plan will be discussed at an upcoming Sanger Unified School District board meeting.

“I’m not trying to fight against anybody,” Florez said. “I’m trying to convince the board to fight with us to save this school and come up with a different solution. Every problem has more than one solution.”

She said she wants the district to make the best decision by considering everyone involved.

“The one party that they did not take into consideration are the children,” Florez said. “We don’t want to fight against the school district. We’re trying to find a better solution to make this work.

“See our children as your own.”

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.

This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.