In an editorial on Monday December 3^rd the Marin Independent Journal (IJ) editorial staff expressed several concerns about the NBEF charter proposal.  Although recognizing that the Board cannot make decisions based on financial concerns, the IJ stated the financial impact of this proposed school of initially 544 students would cause economic hardships on the district that would be “hard to ignore”.

They additionally cited concerns about lack of diversity at this school given only 13 Latino family petition signers among 365 petition signers, a fact that indicates a lack of inclusion of Latino families in outreach efforts leading to the signing of the charter petition.  In fact this lack of knowledge of and inclusion in the process of developing this charter proposal was cited by one of the first Latina parents to speak at the recent public hearing held at the Novato Unified School District Offices on November 8, Mrs. C. Garcia, mother of children at Lynwood Elementary and San Jose Middle school. Full text of her words published in an earlier post.

The IJ article states that a lack of diversity among the petition signers is a concern, especially given the diverse make up of our Novato community. They additionally point out that the majority of petition signers came from one school, Rancho, with just small numbers coming from all other elementary schools in our district.

Finally, the editors conclude with the statement “we are not convinced that Novato needs another public school right now”.

We here at SaveOurNovato Schools agree.

As we remain in a brief period of time for public comment on this proposed charter, please consider emailing the board today at charter@nusd.org  just two words: “NO CHARTER”.

Or sign the online petition today. 

View the editorial in the Marin IJ