Presented to Acton-Agua Dulce School Board on June 23, 2005
6-23-05 Based on the 2000 census and projected growth, the district has over 3,600 students.
The parents have rejected the school district by pulling about half of the students out of the district.
A bond to build a high school has been strongly rejected by the voters three times in a row.
And now, not a single contractor has bid on Dr. Wagner’s proposed moving of modulars to Meadowlark.
More parents have stated that they are going to pull their kids out of the school district and one parent, at a board meeting said "of her friends with nine kids in the 8th grade, only three plan to continue to Vasquez."
In Dr. Wagner’s letter to the board on June 20, 2005, she states that she has to cut another $600,000 from the budget or the County of Los Angeles will take over the district. But, she had no trouble granting permanent raises to both unions and $12,000. to a lobbyist for a crazed hardship application that meets none of the state’s criteria. Her only support seems to be from the lobbyist. We do have a hardship, but financial incompetence is not one of the state’s criteria.
Obviously Dr. Wagner, the Union and the school board have not gotten the message that the majority of the community has rejected the school and their policies.
We must address the rejection, by the parents, of this district’s educational policies and increase our revenue by having some of the 1,800 students that the parents are paying to have educated outside the district brought back into our district. Since both Dr. Wagner and the unions refuse to re-open the Acton School, we can develop a district Charter School at that site.
It will be part of our district, but it’s operations would NOT be controlled by the district, the board, the superintendent, her staff, or the unions. In fact, even the names of the students attending the Charter School and its related home school program wiil be kept from the district.
The Charter School will provide classroom K through 8th grade with high quality, traditional instruction. Later expanding to 9 to 10 if needed. The target student is highly motivated along with their parents toward a 4 year college education.
We intend to operate a K through 12 home schooling program with the parents being able, at their option, to shift between home schooling and classroom instruction.
And operate before and after school and pre school care if needed.
We intend to pay competitive salaries and benefits to teachers and staff, but heavily rely on volunteerism from the parents and community to support the school, To fully support all extra-curricular activities through volunteer workers and volunteer funding, so these expenditures will not drain the educational budget, as is happening in the regular portion of the district.
The parents will pay no fees for the education because a Charter School will receive ADA from the state. We intend to pay the district a percentage of the ADA to rent the Acton School facilities, so instead of adding cost to the district, we will be adding revenue. We have established a website and we would be very interested in hearing from members of the community about their views.
Or call Charles Brink at 800-883-5228