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Jonah Valdez

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Charter school roiled by turmoil

July 25, 2016

Control of Old Town Academy at issue amid lawsuits, principal firing San Diego Union-Tribune, June 23, 2015.

Image credit: Hubbell & Hubbell Architects 

A young and successful Old Town charter school faces growing uncertainty amid a flurry of governance changes at the campus that ended the year with police presence, parent lockouts, legal challenges and a fired principal.

The Old Town Academy held a series of parent meetings last week to address concerns about its new relationship with the Tri-Valley Learning Corporation, a nonprofit charter provider based 450 miles north of San Diego in Livermore.

The small school joined forces with Tri-Valley nearly a year ago under a trial merger designed to increase its resources and better position it for a permanent campus that could accommodate an expansion.

Tri-Valley would run the business-side of the operation while implementing some of Old Town’s innovative programs in its four Northern California charters. Liberated from administrative duties, educators would be free to focus on teaching and learning.

But the arrangement seemed to sour in the final weeks of the school year, when the Tri-Valley pact was finalized over the objections of the charter’s chief educator who was fired. Thomas Donahue had been set to leave his post as executive director in June to oversee curriculum for Tri-Valley, making his departure a surprise to some of Old Town’s trustees, staff and parents.

 

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