D-60 Demanding Action From DHPH And CCA Board

PUEBLO – An already strained relationship between the Pueblo City School District 60 and one of the charter schools that it oversees may have just gotten worse.

On Tuesday, NEWSCHANNEL 13 received a copy of a letter that was written by the D-60 School Board President, Stephanie Garcia. It was addressed to the President of the Cesar Chavez Academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School Board, Donielle Gonzalez. In the letter, the D-60 School Board demanded that the charter schools take immediate action to fix what are called, “serious concerns” they have about DHPH.

In the letter, Garcia says that the district is concerned over the, “Apparent fiscal instability of the school.” When contacted, Garcia said the district has heard reports that the charter school was not able to make payroll last month and that the board is concerned about possible other bills that aren’t being paid.

NEWSCHANNEL 13 contacted Gonzalez for her reaction to the letter and the concerns raised by D-60. She says that the accusations are false and that the school was able to make payroll last month. However due to a scheduling issue with funds, she says that the faculty did not receive direct deposits for their payroll, instead they were paid with a paper check. Gonzalez said that the charter school is dealing with the same budget cuts as other districts in the state.

Another concern raised by Garcia in the letter was over the DHPH Board working against the bi-laws set by the district. Garcia writes that, according to recent reports in the Pueblo Chieftain Newspaper, board member, Pablo Gonzales has remained as a board member at DHPH despite his resignation and negative vote from D-60. Garcia says that the DHPH currently does not have enough members to legally function and therefore it cannot take any legal action.

In response, Donielle Gonzalez tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 that the accusation is incorrect and that Pablo Gonzales is not currently sitting on the DHPH board, however he is still working on the CCA board, which according to Donielle, is allowed. Gonzalez says that they are currently looking for new board members to fill spots opened by recent resignations and that they are not taking any action until they fill those spots. Gonzalez also says that they are working with the district in filling the spots.

Another area raised by Garcia in the formal letter of concern deals with drop out rates at DHPH. In the letter, Garcia writes, “The alarming increase in the drop out rate of DHPH students is also a matter of deep concern…as the district has gotten better in this regard, DHPH has gotten worse. What is being done to address that problem?”

When asked about the drop out rates, Gonzalez said that she was not sure of the drop out statistics and so she wasn’t able to comment on that subject.

After some checking, NEWSCHANNEL 13 found that D-60 might have reason for concern regarding drop out rates. According to the Colorado Department of Education website, the average drop out rate for all of D-60 in the 2008-2009 school year was 30%, a 2% improvement from the year before.

Meanwhile, the drop out rate for DHPH was 44% in 2008-2009, which was a drastic increase from the year before when it was only 15%.

In the letter, D-60 is requesting a meeting with the DHPH Board to sort out the concerns and get answers on how they will be addressed. Gonzalez says that they welcome the meeting and look forward to working with D-60 to clear up the concerns as well as some of the misinformation in the letter.

Gonzalez also tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 that the letter was a bit of a sucker-punch. She says it is concerning that the district is choosing to communicate through the media.

The meeting between the two school boards has not yet been scheduled.

Stay tuned to NEWSCHANNEL 13 and KRDO.com for the latest on this story.