Vallejo charter schools promise ‘turnaround’ after district’s threat to status
VALLEJO – The Griffin Technology Academies (GTA) Board of Directors formally responded this week to allegations of wrongdoing levied by the Vallejo school board in late April.
The Vallejo City Unified School District Board of Education voted on April 28 to send a notice of violations to each of the four charter schools operated by GTA – paving the way for the district to strip the charters of their status. The district alleged the charter board committed numerous violations, including failing to protect students, mismanaging the network’s finances, allowing mold to flourish inside school facilities, and violating the state’s open meeting law.
In a 179-page response the charter network released on Monday, GTA said it was in the process of remedying or had already fixed many of the allegations. That includes creating a chief accountability officer position, who will ensure GTA complies with the state’s open meeting law, completes facility condition audits and completes COVID-19 safety audits. The compliance officer will also track oversight requests from the district, ensure GTA complies with all independent study requirements, and make sure financial audits are submitted on a timely basis.
The charter network also admonished the tone of the district’s notice of violations, saying the verbiage was “irresponsible, unwarranted indictments on the character and motives of the people of GTA who devote their time to serving the children of Vallejo.”