Today the SVA and BOA teams prepared  and submitted  our materials to appeal the VUSD Board's decisions on the SVA and BOA charters to the Tulare County Office of Education! We hope for an impartial and fair application of the law to our petitions, and continue to feel confident our documents exceed the legal requirements for their approval.  

Our Public Hearing will occur before the TCOE Board at their  November 9 meeting, and a decision from this Board at their  December 7 meeting.  Both of these meetings will occur at  3:00 PM, at the new TCOE building on Mooney (just south of Mooney Grove Park).  We want all of our supporters to show up for us again, as the purpose of a Public Hearing is to demonstrate the community's support for these charters.  We are working with our speakers to present multiple perspectives on our program so the TCOE Board can be informed of the value of our schools.

We want our community to know that we submitted our documents to VUSD on a timeline that allowed for County appeal (should we need it), so this extra step in our process is not expected to impact us negatively-- neither SVA's ability to continue to operate without interruption, nor BOA's ability to open next fall.

It is clear our relationship with Visalia Unified is changing as they will no longer be SVA's authorizer once the current charter term expires (June 30, 2016). Despite that significant change, we continue to desire authentic partnership with VUSD for several services, most notably our facility, and we know that our ability to work together in a fair and professional manner directly affects students' lives. We believe there are future opportunities for partnership in which Visalia Unified can demonstrate its support for our programs, even if the events of recent weeks have revealed challenges in their authorization process.  

For example, we have the following contracts with VUSD that are not dependent on their authorization of our charters, and we are eager to sort out which of these can remain in place in the future, and for which of these (if any) we may need to find a new service provider. 

• Nutritional Services (school lunches and after school program snacks)
   
• Transportation (busing from our 6 locations within Visalia)
   
• Assessment Department support (Language Assessment for English Learners, data management support for student achievement data)
   
• Health Aide/nurse
   
• BTSA (new teacher mentoring/credentialing support)
   
• Powerschool (Student Information System) 
• CALPADS/CBEDS reporting 
• SVA facility (accessed through Prop 39 request)
• BOA facility (not already in place- seeking space, to be accessed through Prop 39 request)

We plan to keep our community updated via News & Notes regarding our process for County Office appeal and how the facilities discussions unfold in the coming weeks.  

Please continue to read our updates and ask staff if you have any questions!  Thank you again for watching this story and supporting us as we move forward!