Vallejo school district finds fault with [Solano County] grand jury report

In its response to the Solano County civil grand jury, the Vallejo school district admitted it has lost more than $36 million over the past four years due to students transferring out of the district.

However, district officials said the March 16 grand jury report contained several misleading facts, including the district not providing the number of transfers to private or charter schools.

“This statement leads the reader to assume that the District withheld this data. Actually, data would not be collected nor shared because a formal transfer is not needed for a student to attend a private school or an independent charter school,” district officials wrote in the five-page June 3 response to the grand jury report. “Parents are not required by the California Department of Education or California Education Code to complete a transfer request or inform a public school district of their intent to enroll in a private school or independent charter school.”

District officials also denied that most of the transfers are due to safety concerns, stating a majority of the transfer requests are for employment, “followed by childcare, and further, to enroll in a particular program such as Mandarin or Sports Medicine.”

 “Very few transfer requests are submitted due to safety concerns. Those parents who state ’employment’ as a reason for requesting a transfer, must be employed within the receiving school district’s boundaries, not ‘several miles from home,'” the district said.

Officials claimed that all transfer requests are verified before being processed.

 “If the transfer request is for safety/bullying, an investigation is conducted to the validity of the claim before a decision is made to grant a transfer,” they said. “All transfer request require documentation that is examined prior to approval or denial.”

The grand jury said that 3,237 students transferred out of the district, with just 84 transferring in during the same time period, costing the district $36 million.

“The 2019-2020 Solano County Civil Grand Jury has concerns about the revenues lost and the impact of that loss on current students and staff, as well as the community perception of VCUSD,” the report states. “The District has a long history of struggles, both financial and academic. Community perceptions and opinions of VCUSD may improve if it finds a way to stem these financial losses and implement cutting-edge curriculum taught by highly-qualified staff in well-maintained, state-of-the-art facilities.”

Finally, district officials said that the majority of transfer appeals were denied by the Solano County Board of Education.

“From March 2016 to June 2019, 23 appeals were presented to the Solano County Board of Education, 16 of those appeals to transfer were denied. In 2017, 5 of the 6 appeals heard by the Solano County Board of Education were denied; in 2018, 3 of the 4 appeals were denied; in 2019, 6 of 6 appeals were denied,” the district wrote. “In all, since 2017, VCUSD has successfully prevailed in 14 of the 16 appeals heard by the Solano County Board of Education.”

Vallejo Times-Herald
By JOHN GLIDDEN  jglidden@timesheraldonline.com
June 27, 2020