Official: School Was Warned

Orange Unified School District officials continued Wednesday to bear down on a local charter school, accusing school leaders of not protecting students from an abusive teacher.

In a letter to directors of Santiago Charter Middle School, district Supt. Robert French contended that school administrators had been warned about the English teacher before her arrest this month on charges that she had sexual relationships with two teenage students.

The Orange school district has launched an investigation into whether to revoke Santiago’s operating charter.

Mary Henry, Santiago’s principal, declined to comment on the latest claims but dismissed the idea that student safety was at risk and challenged the anticipated district takeover.

“All of the things we do help to create a culture that fosters a safe and healthy environment for our students,” Henry said in a statement released before she received French’s letter. “Santiago is in no way in violation of its charter concerning the health and safety of its pupils. As such, there is no legal support for revocation [of the charter.]”

The issue stems from the Jan. 4 arrest of Sarah Bench-Salorio, 28, on suspicion that she had sex with two 13-year-old students. If convicted, she faces up to 46 years in prison. She is expected to enter a plea Friday in Orange County Superior Court.

Two days after the arrest, the district’s seven-member school board ordered French to investigate whether the charter school had failed to protect student safety.

Charter schools are largely independent operations that are free from district bureaucracy and able to implement innovative teaching techniques. They must, however, be sponsored by school districts that maintain some oversight responsibilities. In his letter, French indicated that district concerns about the teacher’s conduct toward students “were raised to the [school] administration prior to the teacher’s arrest and during her tenure as a teacher.”

He did not elaborate on the nature of those concerns or why the district had them.

He concluded that “concerns exist as to [Santiago’s] ability to protect its students from harm” and that district officials “believe that continuation of the program under the charter school administration poses an imminent threat to the health and safety of its students.”

Santiago’s board of directors last week retained a lawyer to fight any takeover. If the board does revoke the school’s charter, Santiago would join a small number of charter schools in the state forced to return to district control, according to a spokesman for the California Charter School Assn.

Gary Haynes, who serves as a director and has two sons at Santiago, expressed dismay at the district’s aggressive stance against a school that, he says, has performed well since it was transformed into a charter school in 1995. Santiago serves about 1,100 students in grades seven and eight.

“This school has a great track record and has never had any problems,” he said. “I don’t believe one incident concerning one teacher that has not even been proven yet is enough to pull the charter.”

But some district trustees indicated that, while they are awaiting French’s recommendations and support the idea of charter schools, they see little option other than to bring Santiago back under district control.

Trustees will discuss the matter at a meeting Jan. 20 and again at a public hearing Feb.1. They plan to vote on the revocation that night or at a regularly scheduled meeting Feb. 10.

“When situations like this come up, you need to be able to stop the train and make some changes,” said trustee Wes Poutsma. “And unless we revoke the charter, we cannot do that.”