Summit Tahoma Charter Renewal

The Wednesday, November 4, 2026, Santa Clara County Board of Education (SCCBOE) meeting will start at 5:00pm. The Board will immediately adjourn to closed session to conduct one reconsideration of an intradistrict decision; public session will reconvene after closed session.  Contemporaneous public comments may only be made in person in the San Jose Room of the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE). Community members can follow SCCBOE meetings at home by clinking on this link and scrolling down to the Watch Live heading. If you cannot attend in person, and have a comment that you would like the SCCBOE to consider in its decision making, please email all of us prior to the board meeting at SCCBOEMembers@sccoe.org. The entire agenda and supporting documentation for this coming week's meeting can be found here.

When open session commences, first up on the agenda, the Board will hear the Student Board Member Report, followed by Public Comments of Persons Desiring to Address the Board (for non-Agendized items) and Labor Partners' Report. For public comments, participants are given 2 minutes (at most) to address the Board, and the Board is not permitted to engage on the subject matter because it is not agendized.

Next, the Board will consider approving its Consent Action Items. The consent part of an agenda generally includes non-controversial subject matters that can be approved all together if the Board all deems the items non-controversial and chooses not to pull any for discussion. For the SCCBOE, this part of the agenda typically includes minutes from the prior meeting, resolutions recognizing ethnic groups the county serves, specific educational initiatives, outside donations the county has received, disposition of surplus items, Head Start program reports, approval of board policy updates, and employee compensation increases over a certain threshold. You can read more about all of them under agenda items 8 and 9.

Then, the Board will consider the Request for Renewal of the Summit Public School: Tahoma Charter School. This is an action item and the Charter Department's recommendation and resolution, and Summit Tahoma's petition and presentation can be found under agenda item 10a. Staff recommends renewal of Summit Tahoma for a five year term starting July 1, 2027 with the condition they enter into an Addendum to the MOU on or before January 31, 2027 to address some deficiencies in their petition including:

• provision of a written support commitment to financially support Tahoma in meetings its financial obligations if they enter into fiscal distress in the next charter term by the home office of Summit Public School (SPS)

• remedy SELPA report late submissions by requiring SPS and Tahoma develop a plan to address special education file management concerns and follow those plans

• updating governance bylaws to comport with charter school law including, but not limited to: conflict of interest, ability of SCCBOE to appoint and/or remove a board member, description how parents participate in governance, limitations of board's authority, and administration's authority to speak on behalf of the board

• update credentialing requirements to ensure teachers and administration have valid California teacher's credentials

• fix lottery irregularities regarding validating of preferences, SCCOE approval of possible material revisions, waitlist preferences, and ways to get data regarding meeting those lottery preferences.

• fix language regarding suspension, expulsion, and/or involuntary removal policies to state SCCOE must have approval of possible material revisions, for protection and notification of homeless, foster, and Native American families, and periodic review of rehabilitation and readmission plans to comport with charter school law

• clarification of retirement systems for those employees participating in STRS

• agreement with the SCCOE dispute resolution language

• agreement with SCCOE closure protocol

• follow Corrective Action Plan with fidelity to ensure the Summit Tahoma student population more accurately reflects the community in which it is located and updated as needed

Dr. Michelle Johnson will next present a Charter Schools Department Update. This is a discussion item and her presentation can be under agenda item 11A. Her report first covers the credentials status of all 20 county authorized charters. All the charter schools have appropriate credentials or permits for the positions in which they teach. The report also covers the status of the SCCOE's one and only dependent charter: Opportunity Youth Academy (OYA). OYA was established in 2016 as a countywide benefit charter meant to be a another choice for an alternative school. It has 5 locations, was materially revised in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and renewed in 2021. It is a hybrid school with in seat and non classroom based teaching. In January 2026, the Charter Schools Department issued a Notice of Concern to OYA around allegations of removing student work requirements and/or altering records to improperly modify the work required for students to receive course credit to graduate and allegations of failing to comply with independent study standards. In the Charter School Department's Annual Visit Report in May 2026, the department found no malfeasance, but did find numerous anomalies and a need for OYA to address the processes and procedures regarding the prior allegations and new additional issues concerning around the education program, finances, and governance.

Educational Program

• OYA was requiring 60% mastery of subject matter to move to next class or reduction in assignments (when the charter required 80% mastery)

• Limited evidence of instruction (when the charter required small group instruction, tutoring, and 1 on 1 instruction).

• 9am – 4pm school day, with students asked to leave at 3pm so teachers have prep or meetings (when the charter stated there would be flexible scheduling from 7am to 7pm

  to meet student needs).

• Most OYA students on 130 credit California Diploma for foster, homeless, and juvenile justice students (when the charter outlines two graduation tracks of 220 credits (including a-g) and 200).

• Few ready for college or career as evidenced by only 1.5% on Dashboard (when the charter emphasized college and career technical activities and persistence).

• On most of the California School Dashboard, OYA is in red or orange, with the exception of suspension rate at blue.

• CAASPP scores for 25/26 have only 12.82% of students meeting or exceeding standards in ELA and 7.83% in mathematics.

Fiscal/Financial

• Expenses for the program exceed the revenues received to run the program.

• Funding is through a nonclassroom-based funding determination because more than 20% of instruction is not seat-based, but for 25/26 and 26/27 OYA will only receive 85% of its funding because it does not meet the requirements to receive 100%.

Governance

• There has been consistent leadership turnover over the charter term and over its entire existence, making oversight difficult.

• OYA is a dependent charter with all employees being employees of SCCOE.

• Mandatory record keeping and required website posting are not up to date.

• The Superintendent of Schools is both the superintendent and Board of OYA. The Superintendent has oversight over the Charter Schools Department.

  
  

Please note, these are just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 11/4/26 meeting. You can inform yourself about the rest of the agenda at the link provided above. As always, feel free to email me with any questions.