Families of students who attend the highest API score ranking school in Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), were seen protesting outside the MPR on Don Lugo’s campus Thursday, March 17. Local charter school, Oxford Preparatory Academy (OPA), is currently in jeopardy of being shutdown. According to school board officials, “the OPA-Chino charter renewal petition has been denied because OPA Appendix A Budget failed to explain the finances of the three separate OPA charter schools.”

The district also reported that OPA has been unsuccessful in identifying the targeted student demographic thus failing to provide a structure for its program. CVUSD explained that the average school in the district hosts 57.2% hispanic students, whereas OPA falls short with just 47%.  OPA claims their enrollment of hispanics has increased, even with their current lottery system in place and that each of their schools maintain a separate chart of accounts and general ledger as required by law.

OPA has officially responded to district officials by publicly posting a ‘Full Response to CVUSD’ staff report where they clearly disagree with the districts decision and reasoning.  They believe denying the petition was wrong. The school plans to appeal the decision and has until January 1, 2017 until their current charter ends giving them some time to literally figure out their next move.