Aspire Keep Your Hands Off Our Schools
Lincoln Unified School Board
Tell Aspire Charter Schools to keep their hands off our schools. Tell the Lincoln Unified School Board to vote no on approving an Aspire Charter School in Lincoln Unified
*Disclaimer* the Lincoln Unified Teachers Association would like to clarify the corporations and organizations Aspire takes money from, as well as, listing Current Aspire Board and Advisory Board members with links to corporations:
Donors (as listed on the Aspire website):
Chevron
PG&E
Patty Quillin and Reed Hastings
Gap Inc.
Wells Fargo
Sales Force
TPG Capitol
Benevity
G.L. Bruno Associates, Inc.
K2A Architects, LLP
Roland Construction, Inc.
Stifel, Nicolas, and Company
Ultimate Software Group, Inc.
Fenwick & West LLP
United Healthcare Services, Inc.
Law Ofices of Young, Minney & Corr LLP
Bill & Melinda Gates foundation
Silicon Schools
Charter School Growth Fund
Great Public Schools Now
There are many more donor entities listed on the Aspire Website: https://aspirepublicschools.org/support/
Aspire Board of Directors Include:
Warren Felson – Private Investor
His lengthy bio on Aspires Website includes that from 1986 to 2009 he was president of Gerald Metals, S.A. Managing Director of Drexel Burnham Lambert Ltd, and ran a quantitavie equity hedge fund. Drexel Burnham Lambert Ltd was an investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its illegal activities in junk bonds and insider trading (https://fortune.com/2015/10/16/the-last-days-of-drexel-burnham/)
Jonathan Garfinkel – TPG Capital
At TPG, he focuses on corporate development, compensation and human resources, having spent the majority of his career working on private equity transactions.
Kay Hong – Retail Executive
Chief Executive Officer of Torrid Inc., a retailer in stylish apparel. Previously she was Managing director in the Turnaround and Restructuring division of Alvarez & Marsal, where she was a member of its Executive Committee. Alvarez & Marsal has had many notable clients, such as Harry and David, Tribune company, and Lehman Brothers.
Aspire Bay Area Advisory Board:
Jenny Alsup – Genentech, Project Manager
Stephanie Amos – Wells Fargo, VP, Account Director
Markeia Brox-Chester- Adobe, Senior Business Operations Specialist
Jess Chacon – KIPP Bay Area, Managing Director of Schools
Cliff Hawkins – Carta, Director of Sales Strategy & Analytics
Liz Stiverson – TPG, VP, Corporate Development and Chief and Staff to Co-CEO
Shelby Thoreson – Warriors Community Foundation, Program Assistant
Jazmin Villanueva- Golden State Warrios, Community Relations Coordinator
Full list of Aspire Board of Directors: https://aspirepublicschools.org/discover_aspire/board-of-directors/
History of Aspire started by Don Shalvey and Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Reed Hastings
In 1998, longtime public school educator (and now Deputy Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) Don Shalvey joined forces with Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Netflix founder Reed Hastings to launch Aspire Public Schools
Sponsored by
To:
Lincoln Unified School Board
From:
[Your Name]
Lincoln Unified parents, students, teachers, and other stakeholders are telling the Aspire Charter Schools to keep their hands off our Schools. We are also telling the Lincoln Unified School Board to Vote "No" on December 11, 2019.
Aspire is attempting to open a school within Lincoln Unified that would divide our community and divert millions of dollars away from Lincoln Schools.
Why now?
Earlier this year the Governor signed a new charter law (AB 1505) that allows schools districts to consider the fiscal impact that a new charter school would create. However, the new law does not take effect until next year so Aspire is trying to sneak into our district before the new law takes effect. We need to tell Aspire to keep their hands off our schools.
Who is Aspire?
Aspire is one of the biggest corporate backed charter school system that takes valuable resources away from our public schools throughout the state. Aspire has diverted millions of dollars away from Stockton and Lodi Unified, and now aims to do the same to Lincoln Unified. Aspire takes money from big corporations, including Wells Fargo, PG and E, Chevron, and Umqua Bank. The Aspire board of directors is also made up of individuals that work for those same corporations. While many of the educators that work within Aspire schools have righteous intentions to work in those schools, the same cannot be said for the corporate backed individuals that run the charter organizations. Backed by people like current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, their ultimate goal is to divert resources from public schools and privatize education.
Impact to Lincoln Unified Schools?
Even a small Aspire school of 240 students would divert millions of dollars away from our Lincoln schools. Using the most conservative approach, it is estimated that within the next 3 years, Aspire at the minimum, would take away about $6.2 million away from our Lincoln schools. This would mean that LUSD board would need to enact budget cuts leading to possible school closures, cutting critical programs (music, art, sports), layoffs of teachers and other school employees, and even potential salary concessions for existing Lincoln Unified employees. While some large urban school districts can survive corporate charter schools, Lincoln Unified cannot.