My children attended this school until recently, it was initially a very good environment for a less factory-learning structure, especially for less conformist children; we moved them before the protests and responses were an alleged driving factor for relocating. There was already an exodus in progress once the protests were in full swing due to alarming turnover rates among the teaching staff throughout the year as well as multiple issues with the now-removed principal and much of the board (spoiler: lots of turnover there too).

The board (old and new) has consistently tried to operate behind closed doors, stifle parental/community input at meetings, and actively ignores their bylaws/rules/policies as it suits their interests. The meetings leading up to their announcing the move barely pretended to hold to posted agendas or consider the limited input they allowed.

General consensus among most parents that attended/participated board meetings recently was that they (board) were actively trying to spin an excuse to lease from Lundquist (guy that owns the ICE building) with many questioning if one or more members had personal/financial ties to him. Other facilities not mentioned in the article were aggressively dismissed by the board during meetings leading up to the announcement for arbitrary reasons without exploring remedies or workarounds to their declared obstacles, seemingly to create their "we only have two options" narrative they pushed in the article.

I worked for a STEM company that was hired to augment lessons and classes, primarily at charter schools. Most of the schools I visited were obvious scams and a few would disappear mid-year.

Not a fan of charter schools either, but that doesn't seem related to this in any way. This is still a school full of children being exposed to this bullshit.

I actually went to a REALLY good charter school and think it changed the course of my life. But the vast majority are scams that cut every corner due to lessened regulations.

The fundamental goal of the charter school as a model is to cut the parents and the teachers out of the job of administering the school. Great that we can point to some number of charter schools where things haven't gone to shit. But they're still just trying to ignore the Private Equity Value Eating Machine and hoping it doesn't roll over them next.

Says something that the school was moved under ICE's privatized landlord. It really feels like a deliberate play to extort the charter.

They were gonna let ICE in regardless.

Arm the Teachers