CHARTER BROUGHT TO BOOK DISTRICT CONSIDERS REVOCATION.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Union High School District officials called Desert Sands Charter School in violation of state education law and are considering revoking the school's charter.

The district has given the financially strapped school, which is run as a business and offers independent-study lessons to teens and adults seeking high school diplomas, until Dec. 17 to correct the violations and submit information requested by the district.

``The governing board will be considering revocation of the charter should the school not cure these violations,'' Superintendent David Vierra wrote in a letter sent last week to Desert Sands. ``The charter school's failure to implement appropriate curriculum, business and fiscal policies is a disservice to the students and parents of the community.''

Opened in 2001 and operated out of offices in Lancaster and Palmdale, Desert Sands last year graduated 71 students.

Desert Sands officials said Monday they would have no problem meeting the district's demands.

``We got a letter stating that they want to make sure the things we are required to do are done. If we don't have them done, they will have to start revocation proceedings,'' school President Dante Simi said. ``The majority of the things we've got all done except for elements on curriculum and a couple of things on special ed, and that all relates to funding. We expect to fully meet all the requirements. We've met just about all of them.''

High school board members said the intent of the letter is to set a deadline to resolve issues that have been continuing since district and school officials in August signed a memorandum of understanding spelling out conditions the school needed to meet.

``It's not necessarily a death knell, but we need a timetable, and we have been unable to get a timetable from the school on resolving issues that haven't been resolved,'' board member Al Beattie said. ``We are starting (the revocation process) because we have not received sufficient evidence that other issues are being satisfied.''

An audit completed in November noted deficiencies or ``noncompliance'' in several areas, including Desert Sands' curriculum, special education program, and quantifying how much time students spend on school work at home.

The letter was accompanied by a 27-page curriculum review prepared by district curriculum specialists that found that in some cases courses did not align with state academic standards and advised that students transferring to the district's other schools should not receive credit for charter school course work.

``The primary goal was to assure that the courses were addressing the same state standards that are being taught in the six comprehensive high schools in the district. The second goal was to see if the material being taught warranted giving the students a full year's credit (10 units) for each course completed,'' wrote science curriculum specialist Jim Haynes.

Haynes assessed three courses of biology, physical science and earth science.

``My conclusion was that none of the three courses met either of the above criteria. Major modifications will need to be made to each course for it to qualify as an accredited course, but such changes can be made using the existing textbooks,'' Haynes said. ``It is also a concern that none of the courses offered includes investigation and experimentation, something that the state has said should be a part of every science course.''

District staff recommended that students transferring to regular district schools should not receive any credit for completion of Desert Sands courses in U.S and World History for their lack of meeting state standards.

In a review of Algebra I standards, many ``performance indicators'' were marked as ``not covered,'' including students graphing a linear equation with one or two variables and solving quadratic equations using the quadratic formula.

Vierra's letter noted that the school, among other things, failed to appropriately track student work and attendance, did not report students who have left the charter school along with the reason for their departure, and failed to have its board members file conflict of interest forms.

Along with not maintaining 3 percent of its funds in reserve, ``the charter school has shown no indication that it is keeping its finances in a manner that would be considered generally accepted accounting principles,'' Vierra wrote.

On special education, Desert Sands is ``not complying with its duties and is simply exiting students who had been previously identified as qualifying for special education services,'' Vierra wrote.

``You can't just exit kids by saying we don't have a special-ed program. They have to have a spec-ed program,'' Beattie said.

Desert Sands has not received any state funding for this current school year since the district and Los Angeles County officials rescinded their approvals of the school's attendance reports.

In addition, the school owes the state about $1 million in apportionment funding it received for the previous school year because it had no allowable attendance.

The board at its Nov. 13 meeting rejected a request for funding from Desert Sands because of concerns over different information contained in two preliminary reports from the audit firm regarding attendance.

The school was seeking its share of funding that the district gets from the state based on property tax revenues collected in the area.

The school at an Oct. 28 meeting had also asked the district for a $200,000 loan, but the board postponed making a decision, pending the final audit.