The Abridged version:
- The Sacramento County Office of Education offered another chance to an embattled Sacramento charter school system, Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools.
- The adult education organization came under fire last summer when a state audit found a list of infractions. The Twin Rivers Unified School District board voted in January to revoke Highlands’ charter.
- The county board’s decision comes weeks ahead of a high-stakes election for two trustee seats. Local and state unions have criticized the current county board for being too favorable to charter schools in the past.
The Sacramento County Office of Education offered another chance to an embattled Sacramento charter school under scrutiny for a laundry list of violations, including erroneously accepting millions of dollars in state funding.
Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools, a system of adult education sites across the Sacramento area, came under fire last summer as result of a state audit.
The Twin Rivers Unified School District, which oversees Highlands, gave the organization and its new leadership months to fix issues. Unsatisfied with the turnaround, trustees voted in January to revoke the charter.
Officials from the charter school system appealed the decision to the Sacramento County Office of Education. Leaders appeared before the county board Tuesday night, arguing the school board made too hasty and harsh of a decision.
Highlands supporters and opponents alike packed the board room. Former and current students spoke passionately about a school that offers a rare educational opportunity to immigrants, refugees and formerly incarcerated individuals. Employees of Twin Rivers and the county office schools denounced an organization riddled with egregious, wasteful spending of public funds.
County leaders overturned the charter revocation in a 4-3 vote.
“A reasonable person would definitely not take away the ability of Highlands to do their job,” said office of education trustee O. Alfred Brown Sr.
Twin Rivers officials may appeal to the state board of education.
Long list of violations
A state audit last June revealed several infractions by Highlands and its former leadership. Those violations included wasteful spending, inaccurate attendance records and employing educators without proper credentials.
Over a two-year period, Highlands collected roughly $180 million in state funding that it was never eligible to receive, said Grant Parks, the California state auditor, whose office produced the report.
Twin Rivers did not come out unscathed, either. The report determined the school district fell short of its responsibilities.
“If Twin Rivers had conducted more thorough oversight,” Parks wrote, “it could have identified some of the violations we identified as part of our audit and taken action to address them earlier.”
Twin Rivers trustees moved to shut it down
Members of the school board moved quickly after the audit’s publication, giving Highlands until Sept. 26, 2025, to address each violation. In November, trustees determined there had not been enough evidence of progress by that deadline and began the lengthy process of shutting down operations at the school.
That culminated January in a 6-1 vote to revoke the charter.
Three county trustees, including board President Mariana Corona Sabeniano, continued to back that stance Tuesday night.
“I think our question is very, very clear,” Corona Sabeniano said. “Is there substantial evidence to revoke the charter? And I do see that.”
Were reforms made in the right timeline?
The question examined by the county office was whether Twin Rivers Unified was justified in revoking the charter, once trustees determined that not enough progress was made before the district’s imposed fall deadline.
The district said it received only a partial response by late September.
Highlands Executive Director Jonathan Raymond argued the given time period was too short to make meaningful reforms.
“The deadline was arbitrary. It was unfair,” Raymond, flanked by former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, told county board members Tuesday.
And he said Twin Rivers officials had made it seem his administration would have an extension to continue making progress. Multiple county leaders agreed that messaging from the district was unclear.
The high-profile case has attracted interest beyond Sacramento. California Teachers Association President David Goldberg wrote to county board members arguing they never should have taken on the appeal since Highlands did not make sufficient changes in the originally given window.
New leadership pleads for second chance
Part of the argument made by Highlands officials to keep the lights on was to shake up the school’s leadership.
Raymond, a former Sacramento City Unified School District superintendent, took over as executive director last year soon after the state audit. He also led an overhaul of the charter school’s board.
“Despite this, in the public perception, (Highlands) remains associated with the mistakes of its past,” the school’s appeal letter stated.
Raymond, in his own message to the county board and superintendent, acknowledged changing Highlands is a work in progress.
“We are still in the process of turning the ship,” he wrote. “But the momentum is moving in the right direction, and the reforms now underway are real, substantial and deserving of the opportunity to take hold fully.”
Center of teacher union criticism
The county board’s decision comes shortly before an unusually high stakes election for two of its seats. (A third county seat is also on the ballot, but Trustee Mariana Corona Sabeniano faces no opponent.)
The Sacramento Teachers Association has put more than $360,000 combined behind its two endorsed candidates, Annie Fischer and Davon Thomas. Among the union’s issues with the current county board is a lack of oversight when it comes to charters.
In the past, the Sacramento County Office of Education took limited action when it came to Highlands, according to state auditors, who concluded the county office should have done more before the state became involved.
“This is a great example of why we need new leadership on our county board,” said Fischer, who is running to unseat Trustee Paul Keefer.
Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.