“Any of the items that they feel that we are out of compliance, are circumstances that all districts and charter schools in the nation are struggling with,” Reguerin said. “There’s a national shortage of credentialing and credentialed teachers.”
The East Side Unified School District and board of trustees did not respond to requests for comment.
To the school’s leadership, the severity of the decision seems out of step with past decisions.
“The fact that East Side has moved very quickly in this direction has been very surprising to us,” Reguerin said.
Reguerin said that the school “demonstrated compliance and, at the very least, demonstrated measurable progress towards that.”
Vanessa Gutierrez, an Escuela Popular parent, said her kids have been worried, asking her if their school is going to close. While she said she keeps assuring them that they’re “trying to fix this as adults,” the closure would be devastating.
“I know there’s no other school like Escuela Popular,” Gutierrez said.
When Gutierrez decided to return to school to earn a high school diploma, Escuela Popular provided child care. As her children grew up, she knew she wanted to send them to Escuela Popular because the school felt like a family.
“I was born in the U.S., so I know what it feels like to be at a regular school, and it honestly has no comparison.”
KQED’s Tyche Hendricks contributed to this report.
