"The LACCD Board exerted oversight that the [LACOE] board as a whole has failed to show."
-- Hans Johnson, EAPD
It has been more than a month since the Board of Trustees for the North Valley Military Institute (NVMI) decided to jettison its middle school. Since this represents a major change in the operation of the charter school, the decision should have been immediately followed by a request for a Material Revision to the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE). Unsurprisingly to anyone who has followed NVMI's tumultuous history, its leaders never made the request. The trustees have never even discussed the possible wording for the document.
This refusal to follow basic rules was front and center as the trustees for the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) prepared for a special meeting to consider a proposed lease that would provide NVMI space on the campus of Los Angeles Mission College. These elected officials already knew that the charter school is in the midst of an "extraordinary audit" to determine the legality of the $90,000 it spent on an employee retreat to Las Vegas. The addition of another violation provided further warning that housing NVMI on campus would be a potential source of controversy and the school would possibly not last long enough to fulfill the terms of its lease.
With a rejection of the lease becoming increasingly certain, the LACCD trustees canceled the special meeting. Having already rejected LAUSD's offer of space under PROP 39, this leaves NVMI without a campus. After years of mismanagement, NVMI will be forced to shut its doors.
To make the closure official, NVMI must notify its regulators at LACOE. The next meeting of the school's trustees was set for Saturday, June 24, but had to be postponed when a quorum was unavailable. Instead, the charter school's trustees will meet on Tuesday, June 27.
True to form, the agenda for Tuesday's meeting does not include any discussion about how to close the school in a controlled manner nor is there a planned vote to approve submitting a notice of closure to the county. On the contrary, the trustees will carry on as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Despite the inability to secure a lease on the Mission College campus, the "revised draft budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year" includes $400,000 for "Space Rental/Lease Expense Mission College".
As of publication, the NVMI website gives no indication that the school will not have an actual facility for the next school year. Even worse, it is still accepting applications for new students.
Since its inception, NVMI's business model has been to prey upon families with children who are struggling. By masquerading as a military school, it claimed that it could rescue these at-risk students by providing structure. However, a failure to provide structure with its own operations has doomed the school to failure, leaving its students stranded. Unless those in charge of our educational infrastructure step up immediately, there is a real danger that these students will be lost.
As the agency that renewed the charter of a school known to be failing, LACOE holds the most responsibility. If the NVMI trustees are not going to do their jobs, then the county must immediately issue a Notice of Revocation to ensure a shutdown that is as orderly as possible. The LAUSD should also be reaching out to the charter school's families to offer placement in district schools that can accommodate their needs. New IEPs need to be held to make sure services are in place for the 20.8% of NVMI students who have disabilities.
There is no doubt that NVMI is beyond rescuing, but choices can be made that determine how this closure will occur. Will leaders step up and offer a Captain Sully-like controlled crash so that students will not be needlessly hurt? Otherwise, we're looking at a cataclysmic implosion where the students are going to find their lives spinning into chaos.
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.
