Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Highlands Charter topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Highlands Community Charter supporters ask Twin Rivers board to intervene as credentialing changes trigger mass layoffs
Summary
Students, staff and union leaders urged Twin Rivers Unified to press state credentialing agencies to protect Highlands Community Charter after recent changes led to more than 600 staff layoff notices and threatened services for thousands of adult learners.
Supporters of Highlands Community Charter and representatives of Twin Rivers Unified's educator union used the board meeting to press for immediate action after state credentialing changes triggered mass layoff notices at Highlands.
"The layoff of over 600 staff members is [a] devastating loss," Jade Teal, an employee of Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools, told the board. She said the cuts would remove "critical support systems" for thousands of adult students and urged trustees not to "give up on the lives of over 10,000 individuals" who rely on Highlands' services.
Isabelle Amezcua, who identified herself as a student onboarding and records manager at Highlands, said the school serves many immigrants and refugees and warned that the credentialing changes would remove access to workforce training and basic education for whole families. "This is not just an individual hardship; it's a generational setback," she said.
Speakers described a sudden reinterpretation of credentialing rules by state agencies that, they said, made longstanding adult-education credentials insufficient for the classes Highlands provides. Several presenters urged the board to advocate with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and other agencies to secure flexibility or transitional relief.
"Please extend our charter," teacher and Highlands advocate Russ Petty told the board, asking trustees to use their influence with state agencies. Multiple speakers said the school provides career technical education, English-language instruction and other services at no cost to adult learners, and they described the programs as essential to local economic mobility.
District staff did not offer a legal remedy for the credentialing decisions during the public-comment period. Trustees and administration acknowledged the urgency and said they would continue to communicate with state agencies; the board did not take an immediate formal action on Highlands' charter during the meeting.
Why it matters: Highlands' programs serve adults who are parents of students in the Twin Rivers district and provide workforce training that supporters say lifts family incomes. Dozens of presenters said sheltering those programs preserves services for vulnerable adults and, indirectly, their children.
What supporters asked the board to do: speakers asked trustees to (1) immediately contact and advocate with credentialing authorities for flexibility, (2) consider procedural measures that would preserve Highlands' operations while credential issues are resolved, and (3) publicly support efforts to prevent sudden program disruption.
What the board said: trustees expressed sympathy and said they would pursue follow-up with staff and state agencies. No vote or explicit directive to change Highlands' charter was recorded at the meeting; staff indicated continuing discussions and advocacy with relevant agencies.
Next steps: Highlands supporters requested formal board intervention and a charter extension; they said they will send the board additional documentation and asked trustees to act quickly because layoff notices and enrollment cuts are already in effect.
