August 25 should have been a big day for the 151 high schoolers of American YouthWorks’ Service Learning Academy. They should have been starting the new school year at a campus specializing in opportunities for kids who have already fallen through too many cracks. But three days before school started, the Texas Education Agency announced that it was revoking YouthWorks’ charter for what CEO Parc Smith describes as an accounting snafu. He said, “We agree that poor-performing charters should be closed, but that’s not what you have with American YouthWorks.”
Founded in 1976, American YouthWorks was ahead of the Texas educational curve. It focused on providing job skills for young people and adults in East Austin, concentrating on vocational training in fields like emergency management, conservation, and computing. It gained community support for practical student projects like weatherizing houses, building affordable homes, and maintaining parks. Finally, it opened its own charter high school, designed to help that same high-needs community. Last year, of 167 students, roughly 62% came from economically disadvantaged households. Its students were also highly likely to change residences – often chasing cheaper rents – meaning they were at higher risk of dropping out or missing weeks of school.
On the face of it, that’s not much different from many other AISD campuses, but dig deeper, and the community served becomes clearer: 20% homeless; 50% involved with the criminal justice system; 80% behind on class credits, 95% behind on state assessments.
The current problem was not the school’s current academic performance – the usual reason for shutting a campus. Instead, it was the specter of old problems and new regulations. Last year, as part of the omnibus education law Senate Bill 2, lawmakers approved a “three strikes and you’re out” rule for charters. If a campus missed either state academic or financial ratings for three successive years, then the TEA would revoke its charter. Worst of all, the rules were retroactive. The Service Academy missed the academic and financial standards in the 2010-11 school year, then financial standards in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
The result has been an ugly, yearlong battle. The TEA made its initial revocation ruling last December, and the charter took the fight to the courts. In May, Judge Orlinda Naranjo of the 419th State District Court granted a temporary restraining order while YouthWorks and other endangered charters contested the constitutionality of SB 2. However, the State Office of Administrative Hearings ruled that the TEA not only has the authority to revoke the charter, but was effectively legally obligated to do so. Smith said, “That’s when it was clear they weren’t interested in having the real merits of the case be heard. It was just follow the wording of SB 2 and no due process allowed.”
Smith insists that the problem is not with the school’s finances, but with the TEA’s calculations. Effectively, the agency decided that there was too good a staff-to-student ratio, and that would mean the charter would be insolvent. Yet the school was always in the black, since half of the 35 staff weren’t paid by the TEA, but by leveraged funds. When he submitted the paperwork, Smith said, “We didn’t realize that the way it would be evaluated would be a gotcha. … When they’re closing you down because you have too many teachers in the classroom, and they won’t allow us to explain how we pay for that number of staff, there’s a mistake in your measuring tool.”
Smith already has the support of one lawmaker: Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, whose district includes the campus. Calling the move “a tremendous setback for our community,” Rodriguez wrote, “We need to revisit implementation of this law to ensure our at-risk programs – and the children they serve – don’t fall through the cracks.”
What’s most frustrating to Smith is that he previously had a good relationship with the TEA. He said, “The people on the ground level who have come in to do monitoring or work with the school directly, they have been wonderful in recognizing what a model program we have.” The problem, he said, “is when you rise up in levels, where they just look at a piece of paper.”
American YouthWorks continues to try to serve the community. “That passion is still on fire over here,” said Smith. Its non-charter programs still continue to train hundreds of Travis County residents every year, and 40 former charter students, and several former staff members, have already transferred into those programs. But the real priority has been getting kids into other suitable schools, such AISD’s Garza Independence High School, and the Premier and CAN charter schools. Smith said, “We called them, to let them know those kids would be coming.”
It’s been hard on both staff and students, who were left with few options because the TEA’s decision came so close to the beginning of the school year. Even for those who find new campuses, Smith is deeply concerned that they might be the wrong fit. “There are kids we accepted that other schools won’t accept. That’s really upsetting, because we were a home to them.”
This article appears in September 12 • 2014.
