By Macy Meinhardt, V&V Staff, CA Local News Fellow
When Robin Perry began to search for a new school for her daughter in March 2023, representation was a top priority. She did not want her child to be the only Black student in the classroom.
“She was in private school and was the only Black girl in her class,” Perry said. “She was struggling.”
Harriet Tubman Village Charter School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school with a large African American and Somalian student body located in the family’s La Mesa neighborhood, seemed the perfect fit.
Yet after a few months, Perry, along with other parents, began to spot some troubling trends at the school. Teachers of color were leaving one by one and test scores were dropping far below district standards. More recently, parents reported that thousands of dollars went missing from the school’s fundraising committee, and the school has not had a permanent principal since August 2024.
Then, in March 2023, the school made headlines after an active shooter school drill – involving gunshots and screams sounding through staff walkie-talkies – left some staff and students traumatized.
The sounds were simulated by an HTVCS employee. They were not, in fact, real.
Today, concerns over academic performance and school management persist, according to interviews by Voice & Viewpoint with parents, and former and current school staff.
“The school has the potential to be an amazing school,” said Perry, who now has two daughters at Tubman. However, she said, “when you really start digging, you realize the school is plagued with problems, and it goes back to them not putting the kids first.”
Officials at Harriet Tubman did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story. In an emailed statement, Deidre Walsh, director of San Diego Unified Charter School Office, acknowledged the district’s role as the school’s authorizer but maintained that Harriet Tubman operates independently and is responsible for handling parents’ concerns.
“Each charter school has its own leadership and governing board that are responsible for the operations of the school,” Walsh wrote. “Every charter school has its own independent policies families and staff should utilize to report concerns.”
Harriet Tubman and the Rise of Charter Schools
In 1993, emerging with the charter school movement, Harriet Tubman Village Charter School was authorized to open by San Diego Unified School District and has served predominantly African American, Somali, and Latino students in Southeastern San Diego.
Driven by a push for school choice and educational reform, the charter school option resonated with many Black families who strived for better educational outcomes for their children. Serving as a tuition-free alternative, charter schools earned a reputation for promoting parental choice, a culturally responsive curriculum, and a focus on improving educational access and success rates in underserved areas.
Unlike public schools, which are managed by a regional school district, charter schools are authorized by a district or a county board of education, but are independently operated and can have more flexibility in their governance and curriculum choices.
This means the charter governing board has decision-making authority over the charter school’s academics, finances, governance, and operations, including charter school staff.
According to the California Department of Education, charter schools are provided a method to change from a “rules-based” accountability system to one measured by “pupil outcomes” and “performance-based” results. Charters must fulfill measured outcomes listed in their charter agreement; if found out of compliance, the charter can be revoked or rejected for renewal.
Over the past decade, Harriet Tubman has underperformed in math and reading scores compared to the district average. Parents at the school said they have been stymied when trying to hold the school’s leadership accountable for low test scores and other concerns.
“The ping-ponging of responsibility, frankly, leaves the parents disgusted, frustrated and confused. We have no idea who to go to with these grievances,” said one Harriet Tubman parent to board members during its meeting on Dec. 11.
In a statement to Voice & Viewpoint, the district spokesperson at first, was not aware of the district’s association with the charter school. It was later clarified that the district is “primarily focused on compliance with California Education Code.”
‘Systems of Chaos’
In the months after the traumatic school shooting drill, parents started to notice high staff turnover, particularly among teachers and staff of color.
Voice & Viewpoint identified 80 teachers and staff who had left the school between 2021 and 2024, an alarming rate for a school with a current workforce of 71 employees. [The staff’s perspective on the school’s management is detailed in part two of this series.] Then came the resignation of former principal Ryan Woodard in August, one month before the 2024 school year began.
“We couldn’t figure out why,” Perry said, referring to Woodward’s resignation. When we asked the interim principal and school leaders for answers, we were repeatedly shut down.”
Soon after, a group of eight parents formed a parent-run committee to advocate for greater transparency and parental involvement in the decisions made at the school, such as the recruitment of a new principal. The committee was given a school email address and the ability to host parent meetings.
Their group lasted three months, according to Kiaonno Bradley, another parent involved, before Interim Principal Laura Vivar revoked access to their school-run account, announcing in an email that the committee was disbanded and would be replaced by a new parent-staff advisory group, called the “Tiger Team.”
Parents of the committee, including Amber Kirkpatrick, said the move was made in retaliation. The founding members had spoken out about several concerns, including $7,000 that allegedly went missing after a series of school fundraisers.
“Once we reported over $7,000 of fundraising money missing and then to find out, the next day, that our group had been dismantled, it’s disheartening,” said Kirkpatrick, who has one daughter at the school.
“It is not fair to the parents of Tubman and it’s not fair to the kids,” she said.
The money was to be set aside for field trips, transportation, and education programs. Despite a police report filed with the San Diego Police Department, the school has opted to do its own investigation.
In an emailed statement to parents, Vivar denies that the move to dismantle the group was retaliatory, but was instead made in “the best interests of the school” and rested within her right as interim principal.
Kiaonno Bradley, another involved parent on the committee, believes the move silenced “parents– particularly Black parents – from having an active and independent voice in shaping the school environment for their children.”
“These actions suggest a troubling trend of marginalizing the very families this school was designed to uplift,” said Bradley.
For Perry, her concern is a disruptive learning environment. “You cannot possibly expect these kids to learn what they need when there is all this mess going on,” said Perry.
Part Two of this series will appear in next week’s edition of San Diego Voice & Viewpoint.
