Challenge Charter to close this year

I guess Superintendent Roberts and others who have been threatened by competition and choice have gotten their way. Back to the factory school model and unfortunately, the streets for the students who don't fit the mold. My son did well in Challenge Charter School; we became believers in charter schools after seeing the dedication of staff and results. How fitting that the story is out the same day that Feather Falls Casino opens a five story parking facility. So much for priorities in todays society.

I see people constantly talking about how well Challenge does, but the test scores, and exit exam numbers tell a different story. Not to mention some other very interesting numbers such as drop-out rates and disciplinary actions. All this with students just popping in and out a couple times a week.

Teaches the kids lessons alright. Like "when you don't want to do the work that the mainstream requires of you, we'll make an alternative program where you can hang around, visit with friends, and read manga all you like."

Then to find out the admin was incorrectly reporting to get ADA and now owes a good deal of money. Sounds like a very good thing this site is closing. Too bad they wasted so much money, misdirected funds from the main schools, and allowed some kids to waste part of their educational time.

I can see why the students aren't there enough of the time....everytime I drive by the school there are at least 15 kids sitting down the street towards the market smoking and passing joints.....I considered switching my son from LP to CCHS but after seeing the students who go there I changed my mind. Those kids can't make it at regular high school for a reason and I think they need to buckle down and suck it up and do it. School is not easy but if you can't make it through high school then good luck making it through life.

Peter Maki wrote:

I guess Superintendent Roberts and others who have been threatened by competition and choice have gotten their way. Back to the factory school model and unfortunately, the streets for the students who don't fit the mold. My son did well in Challenge Charter School; we became believers in charter schools after seeing the dedication of staff and results. How fitting that the story is out the same day that Feather Falls Casino opens a five story parking facility. So much for priorities in todays society.

I am pretty sure that the Feather Falls Casino funded their own parking lot through their own money. I'm sure that there are a small group of students who are not losers who attend the Charter school but I see those kids every day and they don't seem to have any goals......other than smoking cigarettes and passing joints which is what I see every day when I drive past the school. It's unfortunate but their are other options such as C.O.R.E. which is a great program out of Chico.

I am disappointed that these are the only comments on here. Those students down the street are not only from CCHS. They are from everywhere. Maybe those are the ones you notice but students all over do those things. The ADA was a mistake. No one was trying to steal money or do anything underhanded. Ed code is long and complicated and the school has been audited and signed off on every year with no one realizing the error including the auditors. CCHS has been a wonderful place for a lot of people. The kids work hard and learn here. Just like every job isn't for every person, every school isn't for every student. Some people need a smaller more focused environment. I know for a fact that there a lots of wonderful intelligent students at CCHS. I know for a fact that the classes are just as challenging as OHS and LPHS - I have met with the teachers at the other schools and compare. Look on the state's CDE web site. It says that our data is not statistically significant because our numbers are so small. Any scientist will back this up. Our kids are successful. CCHS is a safe loving environment. There are not fights here. There are not students telling off their teachers here. I am insulted that you as an outsider "driving by" would decide that our hard work over the years has not been worth every minute. The staff and students here work extremely hard and deserve the respect of the community. The decision is ONLY because of the state's budget issues. Had it not been for that, the school would pay back its mistake because we teach integrity and honesty here, and we would have kept educating the future of our community. Success can be measured in different ways and to be told daily that we have helped these youth change for the better is the best measure of success that I can think of. So please, stay on the outside because you are too judgmental to understand what CCHS stands for.

Teacher... what type of job out in the "real" world offers a "smaller, ore focused environment" for workers who can't handle a real workplace... NONE is the answer.. you teachers need to spend more time teaching kids how to get and keep a job and less time worrying about what they can "handle"

Everyone knows that Mr Roberts turned the school in a continuation type school. If you look back the Charter was actually out performing the high scholl early on.
What is truly Sad is the people of Oroville desevere to have choices in where their children attend school.
Just like River Bend.
It is short sided closed minded unions and special intrests that hold back the children of our town.
Charters can be good things if the local distritcs partner with them.
But stupidity rules in education not only at the local level but at the state level too.....
Sickening is what it is, why did the SChool board and financial officers of OHUSD catch this problem with the money before now, as this was a dependent charter run by OUHSD from start to finish......

These kids can handle a job and most decide that they are ready to attend Butte College by the time they leave whereas most would not have considered it if not for CCHS. Everyone grows up at a different rate.

thngs that make ya wonder wrote:

Everyone knows that Mr Roberts turned the school in a continuation type school. If you look back the Charter was actually out performing the high scholl early on.
What is truly Sad is the people of Oroville desevere to have choices in where their children attend school.
[...]

To me, charters are for experimentation.

There is no reason the public system can not incorporate the ideas or duplicate the charter school experiments we've seen all over the US.

Here in Seattle we have an International Baccalaureate school that is a public school. It's quite different from other schools, adhering as it does to the principles and methodology of IB schools everywhere. It turns out excellent students, prepared for our best universities. I know there is such a public IB school north of Dallas, TX, as well.

I would challenge you to demand that the public system provide the features of your charter - either in existing schools or in a new school that students may elect to attend.

Blaming teacher's unions is lame, by the way. Teacher's unions are the weakest excuse for a union on the planet, and deliver their membership the worst compensation of all professions requiring degrees. If they beat you, then either YOU were dead wrong or you weren't even trying.

WOW! I sure do wish folks would tell the entire truth! Dr.(not Mr.) Roberts, didn't do anything to that school! If people are looking to point fingers, point them in the proper direction. Mr. Gess and the Board of Directors drove that school into the ground. With a principal who didn't know what he was doing, and a BOD who didn't want a true leader, the school was destined for disaster.

Kids always use CCHS as a way out. They see it as a place to attend school a few hours a week. They know there is little to kno accountability over there. You can't claim to have a great program when there are only 40 kids on campus during the day!

If you want to blame someone, blame the administrators at the school! The board of directors and Mr. Gess didn't know what they were doing and now the kids, and the rest of the district, have to, literally, pay for their mistakes!

Thank you, teacher, for trying to explain the situation - unfortunately, there are a number of judgemental, ignorant people who believe they know what happened with this school. There was never support from the district level for CCHS. The superintendant shunned it from the beginning and the other schools used it as a scapegoat. The 'rest of the district' is not paying for the mistakes of CCHS, it is experiencing the broken educational system of the state of California. Shame on you all for bashing an institution that thought outside the box and saved some kids from feeling so devalued and humiliated at the traditional schools that they needed additional support. You sound like a bunch of vultures.

For the people who drive by the school and pass judgments based on the appearance of the students...shame on you. Those are some of the best teenagers I've met; their alternative style of dress matches their alternative style of thinking, which I find refreshing and characteristic of strength and diversity...I'd rather have my son attend CCHS any day than be surrounded by narrow-minded, shallow people who judge children by the way they dress.

As for the insinuation that "the principal and the Board of Directors drove that school in the ground"...shame of you again. The principal and the BOD are dedicated professionals who have given their all for this school. CCHS is closing because we are enduring an economic downturn in a society that devalues education. There are many factors that influenced the closing of the school, many of which were certainly not explained by this article. Get the facts before you make inflammatory comments about the professions that have dedicated their lives to educating our children.

All education is experimental. People learn in different ways, teach in different ways and develop at different rates into different types of people. People who think there is only one "right" way to educate or to learn, one "right" way to dress, one "right" way to live have unfortunately been so indoctrinated by the system they are incapable of creative thought.

Alternative schools are creative experiences for creative people. They were not designed for close-minded, rigid, mainstream people, though such people would probably benefit the most from such an experience.

Don't attack these kids because they don't want to grow up to be just like you.

And don't attack those teachers and administrators because they have the guts to go out on a limb and try something unique.

All you have to do is talk to the students of CCHS to determine the success of CCHS.

Good luck to the staff and students of CCHS. I'm sorry to see you go.

Thank you Parent CG - You brought a tear to my eye and remind me why I come here everyday.

And Teacher 3, shame on you for not having led your school better!

CCHS Parent CG wrote:

Don't attack these kids because they don't want to grow up to be just like you.

Yeah, not everyone wants to be a responsible member of society. They are happy to be residing on the isle of broken toys (isn't what CC refers to its self as?) Some can grow up to be tattoo artists, medicinal marijuana farmers, boosters, and 30-year-old CosPlay reenactors of their favorite anime characters.

I had a daughter follow her boyfriend there. Had she been under my control, instead of that of her morally bankrupt mother, she'd still have dreams and ambitions. Not just "settling" for the easier path and a constant level of THC in her system.

As for taking the "wisdom" of teachers as valid... they have spent their life protected by unions in the academic arena. Go get some real life experience and then come back and maybe you'll get a little more respect.

There is a reason the hard working immigrant kids go into science and technology and the kids of the "touchy, feely, I'll be your friend" parents go into teaching. It's called work ethic and the desire for personal recognition based on individual performance. They don't choose to trade that for collective bargaining. Those who can do, do; those who can't join a union.

Just my opinion 70 wrote:

<quoted text>
SHAME ON YOU FOR NOT KNOWING WHAT PASSING A JOINT BACK AND FORTH TO EACH OTHER LOOKS LIKE.......

Hehe. "No mom, it's not a smoking device, it's a water horn! I inhale here and it makes these cool gurgling noises!"

This post on "education" has turned into another excuse to blame all of societies problems on pot. What an easy scapegoat, eh? Take you, for example, "right armed, right-wing extremist chatter," you blame your daughter's decisions on both the dreaded weed and her "morally bankrupt" mother. Maybe she running running from you, pops. Why don't you give your daughter some time and room to develop some dreams and some skills before you write her off as a loser?? Did you have your life all figured out in high school? Did you do just what your father wanted you to do? Or did you experience life your way and come to your own conclusions?
Pot is not the essence of this conversation. It has absolutely nothing to do with this article or this school. What do you have to say about education, Mr. Right Wing? Or were you too busy with your own "water horn" to think of something worthwhile to contribute to this thread?

Right Armed wrote:

<quoted text>
Yeah, not everyone wants to be a responsible member of society. They are happy to be residing on the isle of broken toys (isn't what CC refers to its self as?) Some can grow up to be tattoo artists, medicinal marijuana farmers, boosters, and 30-year-old CosPlay reenactors of their favorite anime characters.
I had a daughter follow her boyfriend there. Had she been under my control, instead of that of her morally bankrupt mother, she'd still have dreams and ambitions. Not just "settling" for the easier path and a constant level of THC in her system.
As for taking the "wisdom" of teachers as valid... they have spent their life protected by unions in the academic arena. Go get some real life experience and then come back and maybe you'll get a little more respect.
There is a reason the hard working immigrant kids go into science and technology and the kids of the "touchy, feely, I'll be your friend" parents go into teaching. It's called work ethic and the desire for personal recognition based on individual performance. They don't choose to trade that for collective bargaining. Those who can do, do; those who can't join a union.

You are ridiculous. I don't know why you didn't get custody but I'd bet if you tried harder you'd have been a more active parent. Isn't it convenient that you blame your child's lack of success on her morally bankrupt mother? Nobody stuck a gun to your head and made you have sex and make a child. Maybe you should have stuck around in the same vicinity and she would not have became a pothead or whatever you want to call it. As a person who supports medical marijuana, a college educated nurse and a woman who has a husband who belongs to a union I completely am appalled at your statement. You are way off base.

Let me fix this for you...

"As a person who supports medical marijuana, a college indoctrinated nurse and a woman who has a husband who belongs to a union we are part of the reason that California is in serious trouble."

Unions did a lot for the auto industry, the prison industry, the schools, and the healthcare industry. Now they're doing the state so hard they should give us all an engagement ring.