Silicon Valley High Tech school to close

Robert — I’m friends with Larry Rosenstock, the founder and CEO of the High Tech High schools (based out of San Diego). He just emailed me 2 days ago about the difficult decision the board made to close the school due to low enrollment. While I can’t say whether it’s ‘too late’ or not to make a difference, I know that anyone who feels that they might be able to help this remarkable group out would be deeply appreciated by Larry and his team.

BTW, Bill Gates in a very recent Washington Post editorial entitled “How to Keep America Competitive” said the following about High Tech High (it was the only example of how schools are doing it well):

“Our schools can do better. Last year, I visited High Tech High in San Diego; it’s an amazing school where educators have augmented traditional teaching methods with a rigorous, project-centered curriculum. Students there know they’re expected to go on to college. This combination is working: 100 percent of High Tech High graduates are accepted into college, and 29 percent major in math or science. Contrast that with the national average of 17 percent.” Link to the Gates’ editorial here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301697.html

Needless to say, the very fact that a HTH program exists in the Valley is a blessing…and it is certainly a troubling version of irony that the school can’t find enough parents/students to keep it going. Jobs’ recent ‘criticism’ of US schools and teachers standing in the way of innovation seems to ignore schools like HTH…yet if a school providing this realm of education can’t remain open due to a lack of interest, one would be hard-pressed to predict when the larger system will begin to get it right in ways that the Valley believes we need to evolve as a learned society.

For what it’s worth, I love that you posted about this. I just blogged about Gates’ editorial earlier today: http://thinklab.typepad.com/think_lab/2007/02/high_tech_high_.html Larry and team are a remarkable group of people. Truly. Hopefully your post can make a difference and turn this school’s difficult choice to close around!

Cheers,
Christian

A government school closing? How can this be? I thought the govt could solve everything? I so disillusioned now.

I am a student at one of High Tech High’s schools down in San Diego and the program is amazing. The schools are extremely student driven and there is a lot of passion from everybody involved. I do not know much about Bayshore specifically but the ideas behind all of the schools are unique and very creative, definitely worth saving.

Thanks for posting about a activist concern. This is what gives the blogosphere its POWER!
The Baltimore city school board will decide on this Tuesday Feb. 27th at 6:00pm to close schools in Baltimore city.
We must let the world know that we are watching and documenting the abuse of our children.
Below is a post I posted to my site and the Baltimore Sun.
Thanks Robert for helping us connect.

Don’t “RAPE” Our Schools!
& Especially Pimlico Middle One of The Largest School Campus in the System!
The Latin term for the act of rape itself is raptus. The word rape originates from the Latin verb rapere: to seize or take by force. The word originally had no sexual connotation and is still used generically in English.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape
The Baltimore City School Board thinks that it can allow the state to “FORCE” its will upon the city schools and the communities it is elected to serve.
The following schools have been slated to be closed by the Board: Canton Middle School, Hamilton Middle School, Lombard Middle, Lafayette Elementary, Thomas G. Haynes Elementary, Augusta Fells Savage Institute of the Visual Arts and Dr. Lillie M. Jackson Alternative Elementary, Southeast Middle, Thurgood Marshall Middle, and the Pimlico Middle School in Aug.07.
When will the African American community stop allowing our educational resources and wealth be “SEIZED” by a State and Local political system that will not hear the cries of it most venerable neighborhoods?
We have the lowest reading scores, the lowest math scores, the highest truancy rates, the largest number young males incarcerated, the highest number of HIV/ AIDS, the lowest income, the largest number of homeless people, the highest number of homicides, the most heart attacks, highest incidences of diabetes and NOW the State of Maryland and the City dares to try to SHUT DOWN the very institutions, our SCHOOLS which have been our most valuable asset and the stepping stone for our people to try and achieve the so called American dream. Our schools have allowed us to be able to overcome and for many of us to excel in spite of their neglect by decades racism, segregation, private schools, hand me down books, white flight, and all the other ills of that have tried to kill us and enslave us.
We owe it to the legacy of our ancestors and elders as we celebrate Black History Month to FIGHT to ensure that the continued RAPE and pillaging of our communities STOPS!
We cannot allow another generation of our children to be told there is not enough money. Our children are OWED computers in every class room, the best books, best trained teachers and best paid teachers, best buildings and best campuses. Don’t offer us a carrot of building better schools, FIRST build up the schools we have NOW!
Governor O’Malley fought back when the Ehrlich administration tried to take over / RAPE our city schools which O’Malley thought would have been perceived as a blow to his leadership and diminished his run for Governor.
We have an African- American Lt. Governor, Baltimore City Mayor, City Council President, Controller and various other Black elected officials that need to FIGHT BACK when our communities are seized/ RAPED with HIGH incidences of HIV/AIDS, HIGH drug abuse, HIGH homelessness, HIGH unemployment, HIGH incarceration rates, HIGH, HIGH, HIGH. Everything is HIGH except the test scores of our children!!!
We have an African-American Baltimore School Board C.E.O., Board President, and other African- Americans who sit on the Board. Will they fight back against the RAPE of our schools? Our parents who are too often stressed out and workedout must FIGHT BACK! Our teachers who must worry about losing a job, being transferred, and told to be quiet and not to get involved, must speak up and FIGHT BACK! During Black History Month we should not allow our SCHOOLS, one of our most empowering instititutions to be RAPED / forced to be closed. Those of us who God has blessed to have fought a racist system and to have overcome cannot be silent and watch this RAPE occur, we must FIGHT BACK! We must FIGHT BACK for our children!
Rev. William Wingo
Publisher, Power Magazine
powerspeaks@yahoo.com
1-800-336-3290

I am the parent of a High Tech High Bayshore freshman. My son entered this fantastic learning community after not only failing to excel at the local Sequoia High School, but after developing severe, emotional distress because he did not feel supported by teachers and administration and was fearful that his dream of attending a good university and acquiring the education to become a video game developer were going down the drain.

When we toured the campus of HTH Bayshore, we were impressed beyond words by the obvious… here is a school where multiple intelligences were not only encouraged, but thriving! He was HAPPY to repeat his freshman year when he learned that D’s are not accepted as a passing grade. For him, High Tech High provided a clean slate, a new opportunity to build an educational foundation for his future.

WHAT A SHOCK to learn, after 1-semester, that our school was a drain on San Diego to such an extent that they feel it necessary to close our campus and sell the building.

First word of this crisis came on Wednesday, February 14th (now referred to in our community as the St. Valentine’s Day massacre) and was confirmed by a visit from Larry Rosenstock on the following evening (February 15th).

After coalescing our parent community in search of solutions, we learned the building is being sold to Sequoia Unified High School District, who has publicly expressed their animosity toward our school for having to fund us because we sit within their boundaries.
http://www.sanmateodailynews.com/article/2006-11-16-rwc-charter

This board claims “the state board illegally renewed the school’s charter in January after San Mateo County declined the renewal.” The article goes on to say that “Superintendent Pat Gemma said not having to fund the school could save the district about $1.5 million annually.”

My son personally recruited 3 of his friends to High Tech High (which, by the way, our charter school has only been operating under their name for 18-months) two of them from Sequoia high school who, like him, were failing and disillusioned with education, fearful of the hostile environment on the Sequoia campus created by gangs and drug users. His friend, Joseph transferred to HTHB just this semester, and when he told his counselor at Sequoia his intentions he was faced with fierce opposition! He was told the school was failing to educate it’s student body, that he would regret his decision, and that students return to the high school all the time from High Tech High.

What angers me is that the district is clearly putting their financial interest before what should be their first goal to educate students by whatever means necessary!!

Many parents are angry with the Sequoia district and feel betrayed by HTH in San Diego for not communicating with us honestly about the REAL NEED for support to keep out school thriving.

We’ve been told the decision is about enrollment, yet in the 2-years that the charter has operated under the banner of High Tech High, enrollment has grown. Our sophmore class is approximately 80 students, the freshman class over 100, and there are presently over 100 applications for the 2007-08 school year (collecting dust now with the news!). This time last year, the office had 40 applications for incoming freshmen.

As a group of dedicated, concerned and committed parents, we presented the board of High Tech High with compelling arguments to give us 3-months to show them we could raise money and enrollment to make our school “viable,” but what became apparent after presenting our plan is that the decision had already been made. We were told the building has been sold!

Line item # 3.1, of their agenda under the heading “Action Items” read: Consideration of POSSIBLE Closure of HTH Bayshore. This was clearly a misrepresentation and false hope for our community. It should have more accurately read: ANNOUNCEMENT of Closure of HTH Bayshore.

This school is a GEM… our community owes it to our children to keep it alive! There must be a way to stop the doors from closing, the teachers from finding work elsewhere, and this hostile district from moving into our home!

As High Tech High’s “flagship school in the Bay Area” survival is vital for this model to grow in Silicon Valley. California has been an innovator for change in many areas, it’s time to support the possibility of educational reform.

Christian summed it up beautifully in his response: “if a school providing this realm of education can’t remain open due to a lack of interest, one would be hard-pressed to predict when the larger system will begin to get it right in ways that the Valley believes we need to evolve as a learned society.”

Please SAVE HIGH TECH HIGH BAYSHORE!!!

-kim

I am a parent of High Tech High Bayshore freshman student. The school has produced an amazing turn around in our son.

Educating children is the highest priority in our tradition. As it is said: “…You should teach your child according to his needs”. HTH Bayshore creates an educational system that does exactly that – individualized training for students that require it. Our son is blessed with a very bright mind that happens to be different from many others and, thus, he was struggling in his middle school based mostly on a traditional academics oriented education model. His self esteem was low, as well as his hopes and aspirations. It turned out that he has some learning disabilities requiring a hands-on training. In contrast, during his first two semesters at HTHB his self esteem grew tremendously, his grades got him on the School’s Honor Roll, he is passionate about the school and his studies. He also feels proud to be part of the school community that fosters respect and fairness to all. If the HTHB will be closed he has no place to go where he can learn at this level.

The school must remain open. This project-based hands-on education will be a true model of imparting knowledge and practical skills in the next generation of workforce and leaders, here in the Silicon Valley.

I’m a freshman at High Tech High Bayshore. I love attending High Tech High Bayshore and I feel the school should be saved. The teachers are dedicated and they actually care if we fail or not. The project based learning is really cool! We do one of a kind hands on learning. For example, we built balloon carts in math and physics that reinforced the lesson we learned about momentum.

I want High Tech High Bayshore to stay open so all of my friends and I can experience the full four years. I am especially looking forward to being able to do my intern work. Without High Tech High Bayshore I won’t be able to do this.

I am asking everybody to please help me and all of my friends save our school, High Tech High Bayshore.

Thank you very much!
Patrick

I am a junior at High Tech High Bayshore and I feel so fortunate for having been able to attend this wonderful school for the past year and a half. I transferred in the middle of my sophomore year from a small private school and the sense of warmth and community and HTHB was overwhelming. I am a student with learning difficulties and I was able to thrive with the hands-on, project based learning. The school provides an immensely diverse atmosphere that enables its students to embrace other cultures, there is no segregation, in all corners of the school you will find African Americans, Caucasians and Latinos all laughing together. What makes our school so special is the fact that it caters to a population that needs it. Without our school many students have openly admitted that they would have fallen in with the same wrong crowds the associated with in middle school, many of our students weren’t even considering college before HTHB. We are in a community where the internship program not only provides students with a taste of the workplace but it shows them that they are able to make something with their lives, it shows them that success is attainable. With the impending closure of the school approximately 230 kids lives have now been thrown off track, this is more then a school, it is a safe haven for us kids and without it, I doubt most of us will be able to continue on the same pathway to success. The students of HTHB are willing to do whatever it takes to save our school because we don’t just love it, we need it.

Sorry to hear that this school’s going away, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Making it a public school was fraught with peril from the beginning, because the NEA cartel is implacably hostile to any school that performs above the mediocre level that allows the union to wail, gnash their teeth, and scream for more funding.

I hope that the staff of this school decide to give it another shot as a private school.

I am the parent of a freshman at HTH Bayshore. My son has thrived at the school and loved the technology that is integrated into all aspects of his education. The school is about to embark on a two week immersion program where kids go and experience the world. The students had over 25 choices, my son choose the Silicon Valley Experience, described below.

Students will embark on a tour of Silicon Valley. We will visit and learn about its history, the players, the technology, and its future. Confirmed destinations include: Intel, The San Jose Tech Museum, The Mountain View Computer Museum, Microsoft Campus (Redmond, WA) and the NUMMI plant. Possible sites include: Apple Computer, Juniper Networks, and a couple of startup companies. We will also view a movie about Silicon Valley.

This was just one of 19 offerings to our HTH Bayshore students. Others included, The Big Apple, a San Francisco Arts Tour and more! What other public or private high schools are doing this!! We have to save this school!

We were first told that the owner of the building needed to sell to recoup back rent. We later found out that that owner was Gary Jacobs who sits on almost all the boards at HTH in San Diego. In one week, “poof” the building was sold out from under this community and we have been reeling ever since. Our students are devastated. No other school either PUBLIC or PRIVATE offers the kind of education the kids are receiving at HTH Bayshore. We should be opening more schools, not closing this one down!

I am pleading with Silicon Valley to keep this school open and challenge you to do something! We are not dead yet!

1) We need HTH San Diego to give us a memo of understanding to continue our five year charter with the state, that they control and governance from their organization.

2) We need a building for September to house 400 students.

3) We need FUNDING, Make contributions to:
Peninsula Parents Education Foundation,
P.O. Box 1154,
Menlo Park, CALIFORNIA 94025

If you know Larry Rosenstock please ask him to keep our charter! You can also e mail Jed Wallace the Chief Operating Officer of HTH Learning jwallace@hightechhigh.org.

I will leave you with some quotes from Michael a Latino freshman at HTH Bayshore when he was addressing the HTH San Diego based board last Friday.

“I am one of a million reasons to keep this school open . . . “

“I found teachers that care and learning that is exciting.”

“Please don’t send me back to Sequoia High School!”

Leslie

Pardon me, but why ‘school you would want to send your SON to’? (scnr ;( )

OLiverG: because the author wrote ME an email and I have a 13-year-old son.

“Making it a public school was fraught with peril from the beginning, because the NEA cartel is implacably hostile to any school that performs above the mediocre level that allows the union to wail, gnash their teeth, and scream for more funding.” —someone to cs to leave a name.

-

Proof? Didn’t think so. Mindlessly parroting that bs is not going to keep this school open.

The federal government has been openly hostile to public education in the US starting with Brown vs. Board of Education, and currently reaching a fever pitch with NCLB, which mandates numerous financial burdens on local school systems without providing the funding.

Wealthy school districts (mine in the Western suburbs of Chicago is, fortunately) are able to absorb these costs, but districts that have been on poor financial footing are in serious trouble and closing many neighborhood schools.

The really sad part of NCLB is that many systems have been able to game it by holding marginal test-takers/poor performing students back a grade for a year and then skipping them ahead two years, bypassing NCLB testing.

Rod Paige, former Secretary of Education under President Bush, pioneered/pushed this while Superintendent of Schools at the Houston Independent School District in order to make schools under his watch appear to be improving in test performance.

@7 “I am asking everybody to please help me and all of my friends save our school, High Tech High Bayshore.”

This is indeed sad. But the reason this is happening is because this is a gubmint school. The one good thing is that the students are getting a good education at an early age of how the gubmint will ultimately fail you when you rely on it to provide essential services.

A number of comments have indicated that this is a government school and it failed because government is inherently incompetent.

While the school is public, it is a charter school, and not run by any government entity, but by a corporation.

Said corporation was granted a charter (hence the term “charter school”) by the local government to set up and run a school in the district.

If anyone had bothered to read further than the first few sentences and actually follow a few links, he’d find that closing the school was a corporate decision based on enrollment, and thus economics.

Woodside Priory High School’s annual tuition is $26,700. Pinewood’s is $21,00. The parents of students at High Tech High School should have realized HTHS was “to good to be true.”

Charter schools, while privately run, are government subsidized. School districts are generally hostile to charter schools because they siphon off significant funds, motivated, well-scoring students, and active, supportive parents.

To put it another way, if you were an administrator, would you enthusiastically cooperate with a school that takes your money, better students, and cooperative parents, but not your input?

Don’t get me wrong; parents are justified in being frustrated with their schools and their school’s administrators. But to “go it alone” and have the district pay for it sets up an inherently adversarial dynamic.

While I appreciate what Steve has to say, our point as parents and community members is that we would have liked the opportunity to garner financial support from the GREATER community.

We all understand the “drain” on the district, the cost of private school education (many parents are willing to donate a year’s tution to HTHB).

The failure to communicate TRUTH to us and give us a chance is what is most upsetting.

HTHBayshore is serving a community of bright students, this is true, but more importantly it is serving a community of students that do NOT receive the attention, support, and educational model that serves them best in the public schools.

There is a huge amount of untapped resources in the SF Bay Area.

This is a call to PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IS IN OUR OWN BACKYARD.

This school deserves support.

Charter schools and this school in particular are trying to change the face of public education. This is a successful model small class size, integrated curriculum, project based , internships, immersion program (kids spend two weeks in the world traveling and learning), all the things that research bears out as WORKING to educate all kids. HTHB has minority kids, top students, kids with learning differences, every kid of kid and you know what? All the kids love their school and are being successful! Charter schools partner with the community for resources and DO NOT have to follow the usual regulations for district schools. Charter schools are a NEW model. We can’t let this one fail!
Leslie

“It’s sad that attempts to really improve our public school systems don’t get more attention.” – Robert

Even sadder that most people don’t realize the best thing for education is to get it out of the hands of the government.

@15. Whoa! Hang on a minute. As I understand it, isn’t there public funding to the tune of about $6800 per student???? Public funds come from…where? The gubmint? Ergo, gubmint funded school. And news reports say they are losing about a half million dollars a year??? Wow!!! How does the school plan to make that up without raising tuition or going hat in hand to the taxpayers to increase their “public funding”. What I find shocking is that given the “blue stateness” of Silicon Valley, the citizens aren’t clamoring for increased taxes to help this place out.

“And news reports say they are losing about a half million dollars a year??? Wow!!! How does the school plan to make that up without raising tuition or going hat in hand to the taxpayers to increase their “public funding”.” LayZ

I just wanted to point out that charter schools have to get any EXTRA money from the communities they live in by fund raising events, corporations, grants, and philanthropists. Charters do not have tuition. They get a set amount from the state, $6800 and that is it. Most charters schools get a opening grant from the state and then they raise money from the community that wants them. That is the plea from us. Do you want a HTH in the bay area? Do we want it for our kids? Mistakes were made in starting this charter school and no one expected the organization in San Diego to dump us. They promised funding. They had no personal investment or attachment to the bay area. The cash got tight and out we went. Hopefully someone reading this does have an investment in the education of our bay area youth. The school could be breaking even in two to three years with a full enrollment. HTHB took over a small charter school in 2005. They had about 32 seniors this year, 72 juniors, 90 sophomores and 120 freshman. The upper grades were not going to fill, because of the unique curriculum at HTHB, the credits and schedule of classes is so different than the traditional school that it is harder to make a change and get credit for all your course work and most have to take summer school. So we needed to weather maybe one more year of low total enrollment, after that we should have full enrollment and we would be on steady ground. 400 hundred students, 100 at each grade is the general goal for HTHB. Hope this answers some questions. We could really save this school if the community stepped forward!
Leslie

My name is Brian and I am an incoming 9th grader at High Tech High Bayshore (HTHB). I have been home schooled for 9 years and it has been great because the schools in our area don’t meet my learning styles. I was really lucky to have parents that were willing to home school me. As I got older I wondered what regular school would be like. My parents discovered HTHB for my brother and really liked it. My brother started HTHB and has enjoyed it, so I decided I wanted to go there. I shadowed a couple months ago and loved it. Each month that has passed since I shadowed I have gotten more exited about going to HTHB next fall. On February 14th, Valentines Day I found out that my dream school (HTHB) would be closing. I was distraught about the news. High Tech High school board members said that they have to close the school because of finance and enrollment issues. They sold our building right from under our feet. The families thought our school was doing great because they were still recruiting 9th grade students up until February 3rd. HTH school board didn’t come to the HTHB parents and students to ask for financial support and plans to recruit more incoming 9th grade students.

I am asking for help not just for me but for the current students and all incoming students for all the years to come. The HTHB parents and students have been working tirelessly since February 14th coming up with ways to save our school. I am asking everybody to please contact the board members at High Tech High in San Diego and ask them to please give our parents some time to work on saving our school. The parents have also started a Peninsula Parents Education Foundation to prove to the HTH board that they are a committed group. We need FUNDING, please make contributions to:
Peninsula Parents Education Foundation,
P.O. Box 1154,
Menlo Park, CALIFORNIA 94025

Thanks for taking time to read my message. I hope I will someday be able to write about my many successes as a student at High Tech High Bayshore.

PLEASE HELP SAVE HIGH TECH HIGH BAYSHORE!

It is sad to see so many good teachers get thrown to the wey-side. I have been reading these blogs and news articles for days and am wondering what High Tech High has done for these people. I read that they offered them “interviews” in San Diego. If I had to struggle through this situation I don’t think this would be too enticing. Parents seem to be commenting on the High Tech High system and how good it is. How do we know High Tech High had anything to do with these teacher’s classroom styles. I read that the board never even met in Northern California, so who is to believe that High Tech High offered any professional development. When a teacher’s average life span is c. 3 years it is a shame to see so many, that have been positively preached about, sitting on the curb. So many children have been affected and it is a shame that so many children may not be influenced by these people; at this institution or potentially any other.

This sounds a lot like the charter school I attend in Vacaville, about 45 minutes away from SF. I am an 18 year old Senior at Buckingham Charter Magnet High School (www.bcmhs.org). We too are a small (less than 400, including staff) school, and we are currently located in the middle of a shopping plaza (kind of weird to explain to people). We too are underfunded. We too have a teacher, student, and parent body of people that are grateful to be attending such a great school. There is nothing more motivating to students than a teacher that *loves* to teach. This is rare, but it seems like they are a commodity at Charter schools.

The public school system has been a *complete* failure, and in the future, all of these schools will be moving towards the small, community-oriented charter system. There is going to be a privatization of education in the near future. The educational problem that we face in America is much like the Social Security problem: large Public Schools have been a disaster, and charter schools are the only way we have been able to fix this problem.

I believe Buckingham is in it’s 5th or 6th year as a school (I am a senior), and we have quickly climbed to the #2 school in our district as far as performance. There is obviously something unique about this type of education; when you put academia back to the forefront of school, you will see a major change in student performance.

Just logically think about it: public schools have major gang, drug and alcohol problems (which is obviously different depending on where you live). When you come to a charter school with 360 kids and a waiting list of 200 students, there is a huge culture change. Suddenly gangs can be carefully watched; teachers begin to know their students personally; counselors care about getting their students into college. I love Charter schools.

One thing I do miss is the sports and school pride/history that goes along with going to a large public school. But who cares? I’ve gotten a much better education at Buckingham than I would have at any other school in my district, I am convinced of this. With that being said, I *still* think the education system has failed to fully prepare me for a University (Stanford/Santa Clara) like I think it should have. The only way to get around that is:

Private schooling.