Ventura rejects Hebrew language charter

On Monday, Mar. 28, the Ventura County Board of Education turned down an appeal from a parents and supporters of a Hebrew language charter school, the Ventura County Star reported.

The petition for an elementary school in Ventura was first brought by a group affiliated with the Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences (AEA) to the Ventura Unified School District in Nov. 2010. The district rejected the application. Going into the vote, AEA backers had been hopeful about their chances of convincing the county board to overturn the earlier decision. 

The first AEA charter school, a middle and high school in Santa Clarita, opened in Aug. 2010. It was the subject of a Jewish Journal cover story that month.

From the article in the Ventura County Star:

Trustees Ramon Flores, Rachel Ulrich and board President Mark Lisagor voted to deny the charter. Flores and Ulrich both questioned the school’s projected enrollment figures, on which its budget was based.

“I shared some concerns about diversity. I shared concerns about enrollment. I shared concerns about growth. I’m sorry but those are still very valid concerns of mine,” Flores said Monday.

The rejection by Ventura comes just weeks after the Saugus Union School District turned down an application for an AEA-run elementary Hebrew-language charter school in Santa Clarita.

Read the rest of the Ventura County Star article here.