OPINION – For more than 20 years, St. HOPE Public Schools has worked to level the playing field for scholars who have been traditionally underserved. Our schools – PS7 and Sacramento Charter High School, aka Sac High – provide a free, college-prep TK-12th grade education for students who predominantly live in Oak Park and South Sacramento.

Seventy-five percent of our scholars meet the criteria to be considered socioeconomically disadvantaged – a population who enrolls in schools well behind their peers from higher income and better resourced communities. In fact, in the 2023-24 school year, 49% of Sac High students came from households with parents who never attended college.

Our students are predominately Black and Hispanic, populations that often find themselves on the wrong end of education statistics. Each day we work to accelerate achievement for our students with a focus on our mission of graduating self-motivated, industrious, and critical-thinking leaders who are committed to serving others, passionate about lifelong learning and prepared to earn a degree from a four-year college.

Our data speaks for itself: 100% of Sac High graduates meet the UC/CSU eligibility requirements (compared to 36% of their peers in the county); 49% of our Black Sac High graduates attend a four-year college (compared to 20% of their peers in the county); and 53% of our Hispanic Sac High graduates attend a four-year college (compared to 20% of their peers in the county). Across the region and nation there are few, if any, schools graduating college bound, low-income students of color at the same rate as Sac High.

The charter petitions for PS7 and Sac High are up for renewal by the Sacramento City Unified School District which votes Thursday, Sept. 19. Renewal is a standard practice and required of all charter schools in the state. Both schools have unequivocally demonstrated academic results that meet the criteria for renewal of a five-year term. SCUSD staff has validated these results and concluded that PS7 and Sac High meet the requirements for a five-year renewal.

We are hopeful that the SCUSD Board of Education agrees with its staff and renews the charters for both schools. We look forward to continuing to partner with SCUSD to fulfill the district’s guiding principle for equity, access, and social justice.

The results achieved by PS7 and Sac High come from decades of hard work focused on some of Sacramento’s neediest students and communities. Our efforts to improve academic outcomes for Black and Hispanic students are deliberate, intentional, and multifaceted:

  • Personalized learning: We know that students learn in different ways and that pedagogy needs to be adaptive and culturally responsive. To ensure all students are actively engaged in learning, our teachers deliver instruction through a variety of modalities (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic) and use multiple instructional strategies.
  • Modernized elementary school campus: We have nearly completed a historic $35 million renovation of PS7 Elementary in the heart of South Oak Park that includes brand new classrooms equipped with the latest technology. So many factors contribute to students’ success and one of the most important is providing them with a clean, safe, and supportive environment that they are proud to walk into each day. 
  • College and career programs: Sac High also offers a dual enrollment program where students can earn both high school and college credits. Sac High is one of two SCUSD high schools to offer this program and the only one to offer it in person. We also partner with academic institutions such as UC Davis to provide hands-on learning and exposure to science and lab research.

We are immensely proud of our schools’ 20-year legacy, but we also know that we cannot rest on our achievements and that we must continually work to improve our program and increase student achievement. In fact, we have used the charter renewal process to continue to reflect, review and, when warranted, make changes to strengthen our schools’ operations now and into the future. Deepening public trust and creating greater transparency in our processes and operations continues to be a priority for us.

Our objective is and always has been to end the disparity in educational attainment for underserved students. I am hopeful that the district board approves our requested charter renewals for PS7 and Sac High. Finally, I am grateful to our families and the larger community, which have entrusted us with the education of Sacramento’s children across two decades. It is and remains a privilege to serve you.

Lisa Marie Ruda is superintendent of St. HOPE Public Schools.