It was a venture that started with hope, and now parents are scrambling to keep alive the vision that was once Context Middle School.
Context Middle School lured over 200 students in its first year, promising reduced class sizes and an intensive, inspired approach to learning. (Flickr: cdsessums)
Last week’s revelation from Temecula Valley Unified School District officials that the school was facing closure came as a shock to parents, staff and students who had hopped on board for the charter’s inaugural year.
Read also: Temecula-based Context Schools offers new answers to the education dilemma
The move comes amid several resignations from the school’s Board of Directors in recent months and reports that the school is $175,000 in the red. Founder Michele Smith, a former businesswoman and entrepreneur, was dismissed by the board, according to Temecula Valley Unifed School District spokeswoman Melanie Norton.
“My understanding is that (Michele Smith) did not resign and that she was asked by the board to leave and wasn’t allowed to be involved with the school and handle the money,” she said.
According to district officials, the school will be unable to pay its teachers and staff by Feb. 15.
It is not known if an investigation into the handling of the budget is planned.
“How we were not informed earlier, I am not sure,” Temecula resident and Context Middle School parent Melissa Landis said.
“We are still hopeful that the district can jump in and save it,” said Landis, adding that several parents were compiling lists of families willing to stay on board and see the year through.
“Parents are trying to keep the kids at the school’s location,” she said.
Many students have looked into other schooling options, including enrolling in TVUSD’s middle schools near their homes.
Context Middle School lured over 200 students in its first year, promising reduced class sizes and an intensive, inspired approach to learning.
“The small learning environment works really well here,” Context teacher Hallie Botkin said. “These are the best teachers I’ve ever worked with. They loved the kids. Not one day did I see the teachers sitting behind their desks.”
According to Norton, word of the school’s peril did not reach district officials until vendors began asking to be paid. Up until that time, the district’s only role was that of ensuring the school was in compliance with its charter. Money matters were the responsibility of Context’s board of directors.
“Enrollment wasn’t what they projected, and that will make a big difference,” said Norton, noting that Context Schools did not start with the desired 300 students.
As controversy swirled at the school, families pulled out.
Norton said the school began “slowly dropping” in enrollment as parents appeared to lose faith in the program and those leading it.
Botkin said that while questions abound as to how and whether the money was mishandled, the bottom line remains the same.
“Right or wrong, the kids are the ones that suffer,” said Botkin, adding that if 150 students elect to remain with the school, there is a possibility that the year could be completed with some modifications.
While the curriculum will remain the same, it’s possible that, because the teachers were hired under the Context charter, the current staff of teachers will not remain on staff. The jobs will be offered instead to TVUSD teachers currently in lay-off status.
Botkin estimated that roughly 30 more students are needed for the school to remain open.
“It’s possible that they will look into keeping the school around as a smaller middle school,” said Botkin, noting it’s too soon to tell the fate of the school and its students.
Said Landis: “Kids are resilient. I have no worry that my son will be okay. It was a wonderful environment. And I would do it again.”
*Editor’s Note: A conversation with district spokeswoman confirmed this morning that founder Michele Smith was asked by the Board to leave her post.
Kerri S. Mabee can be reached at kerri.mabee@swrnn.com. Follow me on Twitter @kerrimabee.
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Michele Smith did not resign from the school, she was forced out for reasons that were unfounded. Please don’t make it look like she abandoned her school, because that is not the case.
Thanks, Jenny. Please note the clarifications above. I appreciate your comment. As this story continues to develop and with so many questions being asked, I’d like to invite any parents and staff with information that is relevant to the story to contact me at kerri.mabee@swrnn.com. As always, thanks for reading!
MORE TO THE POINT-Why is the budget so out of control. Did the Steve Miller concert make money or simply cost the school money due to poor management by Michele?
Smith, a parent in the district, has a background in fundraising; she spent more than a year working on the concept and trying to raise money in support of it. Students would be taught to become critical thinkers with strong problem-solving skills, according to the charter proposal.
Enrollment is expected to consist of 300 students in grades six through eight.As a charter school, it would be open to any student in Riverside County and adjoining counties. Classes would be held at the former Rancho Vista High School site at the Temecula Valley Unified district office complex on Rancho Vista Road.
Context anticipates $2 million in revenue the first year and $1.9 million in expenses. The school expects to receive $123,540 in grants from the state to open. Administrators have budgeted $500,000 in the first two years for site improvements and another $320,000 for technology.
The school would receive most of its money from the state based on attendance. Employee salary and benefits would make up nearly 70 percent of expenses, according to the petition. Average teachers salaries would start at $45,000.
Smith said if approval is given Tuesday, she expects the grant money to come in the fall. Then an administrator would be hired, who would assemble a staff of 13 teachers. Public charter schools are supported by taxpayer money, but are run by a board that operates independently from the district that grants the charter. The chartering district retains oversight authority.
Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/temecula/article_8f7186ee-001b-5f07-be0a-f124339be3ab.html#ixzz1lkH8WELE
Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/temecula/article_8f7186ee-001b-5f07-be0a-f124339be3ab.html#ixzz1lkGrD9Ns
Good question, concerned parent. Perhaps you should direct it to board members who remained after Michele was cashiered, and who refused to actively manage the school, and abrogated their fiduciary responsibility.
Amazing, who is going to be held accountable to all this? No child left behind is a huge scam that leaves children by the hundreds searching for a classroom. In California, the employment market is flooded with qualified and experienced teachers looking for work yet, we see this school and many other charter schools hiring unqualified teachers (some don’t have a college degree even), and the starting pay is well over 45K, I guess TVUSD enjoys approving these charter schools to make the district look better later when they fail. Who pays for this? OUR CHILDREN DO! Stop this madness, and do what you were elected to do, protect our children’s interest, not yours. I call on the state to launch a probe into all this and explain to the public and the students how did Context fail and who caused this to happen. I call on TVUSD and the state to start auditing all charter school finances now, before we read another sad news article involving education.
Jay – Context failed because of the Steve Miller concert (over 100K ) enrollment dropping and poor decisions by Michele Smith in purchasing equipment and technology. That was said at the November board meeting. Someone also called the state and delayed the planning grant 225 K that may have helped keep the school going a bit longer. That was mid-January, two days before the check was to be sent. Seemed like a deliberate sabotage. Parent gossip about staff, the principal, and even about students caused families to leave and that had nothing to do with money. Even reading the parent forum tonight, some parents still don’t understand that the public comment section is the only time you can talk, and the board cannot respond. It is not a discussion. Now they are criticizing the TVUSD for having “deaf ears.” The same Context parents who caused so many families to leave are doing it again. Michele pulled her kid out. Enough said.
Education has become a business where opportunity seekers fight to grab a seat on the board for statuse and financial gain purposes. I question how some charter and even district schools hire a teacher without credentials and in some cases without a BA degree when credentialed teachers are being laid off by the droves to live off of unemployment checks and food stamps. Charter schools need to be audited by WASC, the state attorney general office and even by federal regulators. Bad practices always lead to financial melt down, which is the case here. What was Mrs. Smith’s qualifications to start with? An experienced fund raiser? I agree that money is a major factor that plays in everything, but in education, especially state funded education, practices which lead education results must be the first goal. Hiring teachers that do not meet even half the requirments to teach and pay them full starting teacher’s pay (maybe more in some cases) should raise all kinds of red flags. I suspect this school failure was the result of one person actions, both sucess and faliure are results of group efforts.
MB – You seem very confident in your understanding of how Context failed. It also seems you have complete support of the administration and board of Context which sounds like to me, you are one of the above mentioned. Are you suggesting the parents of Context should have not asked any questions regarding direct violations of the Brown Act committed by the board? I also noticed you did not mention the cost of an attorney that the violating board members retained when facing the questions from “parent gossip” as an unnecessary expense. It is my understanding that the APU consultants pulled their curriculum immediately after they learned that the grant was not going to pay their salaries, and instead would be going towards the good of the school. It would also be possible to avoid gossip if the principal would not have withheld so much information from the parents. Why should it have taken a parent to call the police onto campus to have a child arrested for sexual assault and the selling of narcotics after the principal down played the situation and chose to do nothing about it? At least she picked up the garbage on campus, maybe it was giving a custodian the title and salary of “principal” that was a big reason for the school closure as well.
I am apparent and I attended all the meetings. Obviously CP you were not at these meetings and please don’t think these board members got paid. They volunteered and held down full time jobs as well. All the teachers we’re credentialed some with Masters! THeir pay comes form the state from student’s attendance money. THey would be making more at a public school and yet worked harder and gave up their union protection. THe school is not closing because of the board but because Michel Smith spend the money that was there for expensive. You don’t do a fundraiser that costs you $100,000 to hold just to make a name for yourself!!! You also don’t give tickets away or free!!!!!! As to consultants pulling their curriculum – they should have it is their personal property and they made the school great because of the curriculum they wrote and the training they gave to teachers. THe consultants wrote that grant and it specifically ahd their salaries stated int he grant as that is why it was written – would you work for free and give your personal written materials for free — be real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why don’t you take the time to talk to the principal and learn how she was constantly harassed? Did you see the police officer at the last board meeting? Obviously someone felt threatened. Board members were threatened with numerous lawsuits from Michele’s group of parents. This was explained at the December board meeting. Were you not at that one either? I only know these things because I listened. There was not one Brown Act violation yet the board said at that meeting that the constant barrage of emails from the parents was overwhelming them – especially at their places of business. When that didn’t work, the parents started bashing the principal. Then the educational consultants. Then they started on individual students. Then they started pushing all the buzz words designed to get parents upset – bullying, drugs, sexual harassment. Of course families left the school. Who wouldn’t? The parents seemed to think that the principal owed them explanations for individual student issues. That is against the law for her to disclose. Nobody could do anything right according to them.
@ The Truth – Were you at school when the police came and arrested the student for sexual harrassment and narcotics? That wasn’t the parents throwing around buzz words, that was fact. Did you talk personally to the parents whose kids were being bullied, and did you hear that their requests for help from the principal were ignored? I have spoken to actual parents, and have received the facts of their situations from their own mouths. The principal was not being harrassed, she wasn’t doing her job and people were begging for help and guidance to navigate what was obviously turning into a sinking ship and she either ignored them or made it seem like everything was fine. No one was asking for her to disclose anything private, they were asking her to be a principal and run the school like a leader. Also, have you looked up the Brown Act – google it or watch a you tube video and since you were sitting in all of those meetings ( as was I) you will see how they were in violation of numerous things. At the 2nd to last Board Meeting, the young male lawyer said out loud to the whole crowd, that it was understandable that a new Board will violate the Brown Act and that TVUSD would be understanding of that. What??? It’s against the law! If you want the truth, get some facts that you can prove and stop spreading the hearsay trickling out from the front office.
I was in the front office this morning to bring in something for my child and I witnessed an altercation between a parent and the principal. I had heard rumblings and read comments to the effect that the principal was being harassed, but what I witnessed was the opposite. She was extremely rude to the parent, even taunting – and when the parent had left she mocked the parent to the other people sitting in the staff room. I was mortified. I’m unsure if she saw me standing in the hallway, since I was behind her – but there were even other parents working on the carnival in there at the time. After what I witnessed, I’d have to say that I no longer believe that she is the saint she is lauded to be by certain teachers and parents. There is obviously more to the story than what is being projected as “the truth”.
The Brown Act has to do with elected government officials. who sit on private or public boards. no one on the cce board is elected or receives a government salary. because the school receives funds, and tvusd board members are paid they must follow the brown act. not true for nonprofits even if they receive funds. it is about who the members are and the group itself.
@The Truth – “The Board of Directors of the Collaborative Community Education will meet regularly, at least once a month (except during the summer) and in accordance with the Brown Act. The Board of Directors is fully responsible for the operation and fiscal affairs of the Context: Middle School, Temecula ”
This is an excerpt from the charter petition. I’d dare to venture it was part of the by laws as well. Maybe the Board should have done a better job of putting together and reading their own documents.
You obviously have never talked to any one on the board. They were asking Michele to provide a budget starting July. Then August. Then September. Then October. Nothing from Charter School Management either. That’s when the district starting asking questions too. Kind of hard to be on a board when the people responsible for providing the information just give excuses. Did you know that everyone resigned that came from Temecula or Murrieta area? They caught on real fast that Michele was just conning everybody.
The Board of directors managed CCE – the non profit business group overseeing Context MIddle School which was in accordance with the Brown Act but does not require them to follow the BROWN ACT – you just don’t understand!!!!!!!!!!!!! You parents wanted to run the school – then go to a private school where you pay tuition !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!