Crete Can’t Run From Its Failures

“Charter schools are free from the red tape that gets between students, teachers, and learning. In exchange, our schools are held to high performance standards.”

– California Charter School Association (CCSA)

As Brett Mitchell Jr., co-founder of the Crete Academy Charter School, walked up to the podium in the LAUSD Board Room it was clear that the public hearing about renewing the school’s charter was going to be a contentious one. Fifteen days before the meeting, the Charter School Division had presented its recommendation to deny the request and, unless Mitchell could change the board's mind, Crete would be on the path to its shutdown. Flanked by the school’s staff members and students in a show of intimidation, Mitchell took to the mike to make his case.

Mitchell’s arguments were undermined by the conflicts in the data that he presented. As he spoke about the 105 students out of 300 who are unhoused, a slide the school created stated that “15% of Crete students are experiencing homelessness.” This number was similar to the 15.2% declared in the renewal petition. All of these percentages conflicted with the School Accountability Report card Crete had turned into the state, an issue that I addressed in my public comments:

Before I begin I’d like to point out that the first speaker stated that 33% of the students are homeless. According to the SARC Report, it is 21.1%.

$ 390,982: this is how much compensation the husband and wife team who founded Crete Academy received from the school in the fiscal year ending in 2023. When opponents of charter schools talk about how these schools turn public education funds into profits, this is what we mean. Yes, California law requires charters to be organized as non-profits, but this only applies to the schools. It does not stop suppliers, contractors, Charter Management Organizations, real estate investors, and, in this case, administrators, from lining their pockets with money meant for educating children.

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What did the 283 students of Crete, 87.7% of whom are classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged, receive for this $390,000? They each contributed $1,381 to receive an education the state rates as “Low Performing.” The Charter School Division lists 14 communications with the school regarding “ongoing areas of non-compliance,” some for repeat reasons, indicating a history of operational deficiencies. Last month one of the founders, Dr. Hattie Mitchell, came before you and bragged about a case where she ignored mandatory reporting laws allowing three students to stay in an environment that “reeked of urine” where they were malnourished, ravaged by bug bites, and were living with a mother who, by Mitchell’s description, was “clearly unable to care for these kids.”

The Mitchells are not the only ones profiting excessively off of the education system and homeless students. Records show that David Tokofsky, the former Board Member who regularly appears before you, received consulting fees from this school. How many of you heard from him in the run-up to this vote? Did he disclose to you that he is a paid lobbyist?

It is time to end this grift. Please vote to approve the Charter School Division’s recommendation to deny the renewal of Crete’s charter.

As much as Mitchell wanted to pretend that the recommendation was based on just one year of bad test scores, the school’s annual review by the Charter School Division last year scored its Student Achievement and Educational Performance as two on a four-point scale. In the current California School Dashboard, the Academic performance was even worse with the charter school ranked in Red (very low) for English Language Arts and Mathematics. Scores declined over the previous year in both categories.

Even with an increase in performance from the previous year, chronic absenteeism was still ranked as Red (very low) with 23.4% of the school’s students chronically absent. The school’s suspension rate was ranked as Orange (low).

In the U.S. News rankings, often used by charter schools to indicate their supposed superiority to public schools, Crete was ranked in the lowest band for California Elementary Schools. The magazine noted that only 8% of students were proficient in Math or Reading.

While developing a school to assist vulnerable students is commendable, it should be noted that the percentage of Economically Disadvantaged students at Crete is in line with the LAUSD as a whole (87.70% at Crete vs. 85.4% for the District). The charter school serves substantially less English Learners (7.3% vs. 28%) and children with Special Education needs (8.2% vs. 13%). As usual, the Charter School Division ignored this data in making its recommendation.

A school that is just 30 spots away from the bottom of the barrel would seem like an easy candidate for closure, but not for Nick Melvoin. Proving his unwillingness to follow through with the California Charter School Association’s (CCSA) promise of a greater level of accountability for these publicly financed private schools, Melvoin was the lone vote against approving the denial. Instead of recognizing their failure, the Crete board has already voted to appeal.

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.