The 2011-2012 Academic Performance Index(API) were released state-wide. The NUSD district-wide API improved six points to 839. This represents the fifth straight year the NUSD has shown improvement. The district is on a roll!

The table shows a pattern of gains across sub-groups district-wide for the last five years. The Novato community should be very proud of the educators, students and parents that have made these results possible.

This year ALL Novato elementary schools showed improvement in their API scores. Rancho Elementary, now a neighborhood school, continues to post the highest scores in Novato and among the highest in the county. A number of other schools showed huge gains in both overall API scores and within specific sub-groups. The rising elementary scores bode well for middle and high schools as these elementary school wiz kids enter the upper grade levels!

Why, you might ask yourself, is there a need for a new Charter School in Novato given that all of our elementary schools are highly successful? The legislative intent of charter school law (or what the government was trying to achieve with the law), is to provide educational alternatives for those children who were failing in the standard public school system.

The test scores say we should double down on our neighborhood schools not abandon them. What do you say?

TELL THE SCHOOL BOARD “NO” TO THIS BAD “CHOICE” FOR NOVATO.