The idea of charter schools was little-known concept in Orange County in 1999, recalls Susan Mas.
Mas is now an independent consultant with ChartersOC, an initiative of Innovators OC and the California Charter Schools Association.
Back then she was working for Southern California Edison as an alternative energy specialist and serving on the board of the Laguna Beach Unified School District. She also found time for Create, a nonprofit organization she founded to give artistic, low-income children the chance to spend two weeks each summer in Laguna Beach.
Charter schools intrigued her.
“I learned that charter schools, which are publicly funded, have more flexibility when it comes to how they spend the resources that they receive from funding,” she says. “Charter schools could be targeted toward students who have special interests, such as the performing arts or science.”
The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) was in the processes of bringing in a school that fit the charter school definition—Orange County High School of the Arts (OCSA), which was founded in 1987 on the campus of Los Alamitos High School.
“I began to think about how a charter school could help make a real difference in the quality of education for low-income kids,” Mas says.
She soon met Kathy Sabine, then the principal of Heninger Elementary in Santa Ana, and the two hit it off. They began to talk about the pros and cons of charter schools.
“OCSA was in the process of coming to Santa Ana and becoming a charter school,” Sabine recalls. “Susan and I realized that many inner-city kids didn’t have the opportunity to take the dance classes and art classes that would ready them for OCSA. We started thinking about creating a charter school for low-income kids that focused on academics, along with art; a school that would prepare them to audition for OCSA if they wanted to go there; a school that would prepare them for anything.”
Inspiration to Inception
Mas and Sabine set out to develop a dual-immersion, English-Spanish program. They chose Santa Ana as the location, partly because Santa Ana schools were overcrowded, and the population they served tended to be of lesser means, Mas says.
The school would serve children in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school would start with a kindergarten class, then add a grade per year.
The cofounders then chose the Spanish word for sun in naming the school: El Sol Science and Arts Academy.
Mas and Sabine spent months in 1999 and 2000 developing a plan for the school. Mas brought in key early supporters, including Juan Lara from University of California-Irvine, who Sabine knew through her role as principal at Heninger.
“When Kathy reached out to me, [UC Irvine] immediately embraced the idea,” Lara says. “I knew Kathy was a ‘doer.’ ”
Lara, in turn, brought on Karina Hamilton, a practicing attorney for 10 years before joining UCI in 1999. Hamilton had been instrumental in the creation of Sage Hill School, a private school in Newport Coast. Philanthropist Dori Caillouette, a founder of Sage Hill School, also lent her expertise to El Sol.
Sabine and Mas took their plan to the Santa Ana Unified School District’s board of trustees.
The school board approved the plan in 2000, tapping funds from the Measure C school bond—which called for money to go toward renovations at Santa Ana’s public schools—to provide $2.5 million to buy the initial property for El Sol—a 2.8-acre lot filled with weeds and ramshackle buildings on Broadway. “But we saw past all that to what (it) could be,” Sabine says.
When the school completed the first phase of campus development in January, it had a two-story, 19,000-square-foot learning center with 12 state-of-the-art-classrooms.
The school also has a wellness center, a legal aid office, and a social services satellite office.
The momentum continued last week, when El Sol landed a $17 million grant from the state that will cover about two-thirds of the cost of two additional buildings with 26 more classrooms and a multipurpose building.
Early Believers
The recent gains are a continuation of momentum that started almost as soon as Santa Ana’s school board approved El Sol and the school found early supporters in OC’s nonprofit community (see related stories, pages 1, 5, 10, 12; list, starting on page 18). The Samueli Foundation provided early funding, and the MIND Research Institute designed the school’s technology curriculum. Project Tomorrow helped develop the school’s approach to teaching science.
Mas’ old boss, Southern California Edison, was an in-kind supporter.
“They really helped get the electricity running,” says Mas.
Another of the school’s earliest local supporters was Dwight Decker, then chief executive of Conexant Systems Inc., who served on El Sol’s newly formed technology board. Vice Chancellor of UCI, Manuel Gomez, also joined the newly formed board.
Community Comes Together
Partnerships with outside organizations, groups and individuals have become a staple of El Sol’s success. The school boasts ever-rising test scores and has garnered several awards, including the prestigious Hart Vision Award for Charter School of the Year in March. It has a waiting list of more than 800 children.
Many of the initial partnerships have strengthened, and other organizations have come on board to ensure that El Sol is a success. Sage Hill School has maintained strong links with El Sol—students from both schools interact on a monthly basis, with Sage Hill high schoolers mentoring the younger El Sol students.
The mix benefits both groups, according to Vicki Booth, one of Sage Hill’s founding board members and president of the Ueberroth Family Foundation.
“It is a great opportunity for all the kids to learn from each other,” Booth says. “They have different backgrounds and experiences; ultimately, the interaction between them enriches everyone’s life.”
Sage Hill began providing scholarships to El Sol students in 2010.
Kylie Schyuler, president and founder of Global Girls Rising, discovered El Sol five years ago, through her daughter, Macaul Hodge. The younger Hodge was then a freshman at Sage Hill, and was mentoring an El Sol student.
Schuyler and her husband, Doug Hodge, chief executive of Pacific Investment Management Co., became supporters of El Sol, hosting fundraisers. Schuyler’s own foundation established a mentor program at El Sol to help guide adolescent girls (see related story, page 48).
Marshall Kaplan, a former executive of the Merage Foundations who still advises the organization, became part of the El Sol community in 2005. That’s when Merage Foundation founder Paul Merage became an El Sol supporter.
Kaplan and Executive Director Monique Daviss, who joined El Sol in 2005, have helped expand the school’s roster of relationships.
Chapman University in Orange and California State University-Fullerton send their student teachers to El Sol.
Nonprofit Share Ourselves partnered with El Sol to create the SOS-El Sol Wellness Center on the school’s campus, with operations managed by the UCI nursing program and supported by Hoag Hospital.
The Ueberroth Family Foundation, Wells Fargo, and others have donated significantly toward the school’s capital campaign and through grants.
Opus Bank consistently underwrites the annual High Hopes Luncheon, which raises money for the school.
Pacific Symphony provides opportunities for El Sol students to experience the arts.
El Sol also is a site for the Pimco Workplace Mentoring Program. Students visit the Pimco offices in Newport Center on a regular basis to work with their mentors.
“El Sol is a very successful model that any community would benefit from and anyone would be proud to call a partner,” Kaplan says.
The school, he says, is the beginning of the American Dream for many of the children.
Alejandra Garcia, a Stanford freshman who attended El Sol and received a scholarship to Sage Hill School, describes her experience.
“If I had not attended El Sol, I would not be the same person I am today,” she says. “The El Sol community will always be very important to me, because that is where I grew up—I was a student there from first through eighth grade, from the age of 5 to 14. El Sol played a crucial role in my development as a person.”
