California Teachers Association
1705 Murchison Drive
P. O. Box 921
Burlingame, CA 94011-0921
www.cta.org
Contact: Sacramento City Teachers Association President Tom Rogers at 916-452-4591 or Lori Easterling, SCTA executive director at 916-452-4591, or cell at 916-801-5899
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SACRAMENTO - The Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) says a recommendation by the California Department of Education proves that the Sacramento City School Board overreacted when it voted to close Sacramento High and is asking the board to reconsider its decision.
The California Department of Education is recommending to the State Board of Education that Sacramento High School and 23 similar schools that failed to raise their test scores over a two-year period, receive additional assistance from an intervention team - and not a state takeover of the schools.
"The state has no intention of taking over Sacramento High School," said Tom Rogers, SCTA president. "Plain and simple, Superintendent Jim Sweeney created a false crisis in order to close Sac High. We demand that the school board reconsider its vote and allow the teachers at Sacramento High to continue their task of educating students."
At Superintendent Jim Sweeney's insistence the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Trustees voted in January to close Sacramento High School and accept proposals to run the school as a charter school. Sweeney supports a proposal by the Christian-based St. Hope Corporation, which has already received board approval.
Teachers at the school, supported by the Sacramento City Teachers Association, have maintained the superintendent's sole motive for closing the school was to deny teachers their rights under the current contact and get rid of the teachers union. In subsequent media interviews, Sweeney admitted closing the school was the only way to wrest Sacrament High from the district's collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union.
While he urged the school board to reconsider its decision, Rogers said that the SCTA will move ahead with its plans to present a conversion of Sacramento High into a Partnership Charter at the school board meeting on March 17. The Partnership Charter has the support of the majority of faculty at Sacramento High School as well as a broad coalition of students, parents and community members.