This from the RGJ Opinion Section…
Keep school open at least until May
I think it is a crime that the state is threatening to close Halima Academy before the students there can complete the school year. The school district apparently can’t or won’t take them, so the state is essentially robbing 120 kids of their education. Many of them are months away from graduation and have no place else they can go.
I believe Halima shouldn’t close at all, but I urge state decision makers to at least keep it open until May for the kids’ sake. We already have so few social services, taking away one that did so much good for individuals and their families, when there are no alternatives offered, only hurts the community in the end.
I hope the great injustice the state is committing gets the public outcry it deserves. I myself do not intend to let Halima quietly disappear.
Jennifer Panhorst, Reno
Now for full disclosure purposes I will say, the director of the charter school mentioned here, Halima Academy, is a close personal friend of mine. I was there helping her set up the library, and watching her struggle to make this worthwhile endeavor a reality. This school is the model of what needs to happen more often in this community. Instead of throwing away our youth we need to give them every opportunity to succeed. We should be embracing and enabling anyone willing to take on the challenges that the public schools have already given up on.
These kids have made mistakes, but they are taking the opportunity being presented to them to correct what would otherwise be too late to correct. The think the school board needs to be allot more helpful and allot less judgmental in this case. There seems to be an air of empire building here, and it’s disgraceful.
Allow Halima Academy to stay OPEN, if only for the kids.