On Monday, Mar. 10, 2025 Norton staff and students packed into a bus to cheer on their school as Norton faced an existential crossroads–whether the San Bernardino County Board of Education (SBCBOE) would renew Norton’s charter after the passing of California Senate Bill 739 that amended California Education Code 47607 in September 2024. The bill mandated that all public charter schools deemed low-performing on specific status indicators on the California state dashboard would need to provide verified data to their local county boards to receive charter renewal for up to 2 years. 

If the charter renewal was not approved by the charter school’s county board, the charter school could not appeal to the state of California for an additional review; the county’s decision would be final and the charter school would be required to close. This significant county board vote on Norton’s charter follows presentations by Norton staff and students at the Feb. 10, 2025 county board meeting and Norton’s submission of their petition for charter renewal on Dec. 16, 2024. 

Preparing to Vote

Norton student ambassadors, cheer team, Associated Student Body (ASB) members, and additional staff and students stepped out of Norton’s bus this Monday and entered the Dorothy Ingram Learning Center half an hour before the start of the county meeting. Many staff and students held signs to cheer on the Norton team as they answered the board’s final questions prior to the vote. Staff also shared statements about why they believe Norton deserves its renewal, citing the impact the school has had on students. 

Kindergarten teacher Angelica Ramos shared why she has taught at Norton for 17 years. 

“17 years ago, I was a novice teacher just starting out. The job market was not great, and my job opportunities were few and far between. That’s when I extended my job search and found Norton,” Ramos explained. “[Norton was] 45 miles away from my home. I wasn’t thrilled about the [commuting] distance, but I knew that Norton was a growing school, and I hoped that I could have a voice in a building [and] a school that I could be proud of. Fast forward 17 years, and I’m still here, not out of necessity, but by choice. Norton is my second home… We started as a small dual immersion school striving to create global citizens who would value and support language and cultural diversity. Today, we are doing just that. I come from an immigrant family, so I know the importance of a quality education in order to get ahead. However, my education will not have the same value to me if I were not able to communicate with my extended family members, and that is why Norton is so important to San Bernardino County. Because although it may take my students a little bit longer to read and write in two languages, when they do finally pick up a menu in a restaurant, they are not only reading it for themselves, they are translating it for their non-English-speaking family members. When they finally write an essay, they’re not only writing it for their classroom, but they’re also able to write a beloved birthday card to their abuelita in Mexico. So while I do understand the importance of the dashboard and what the state sees as success, what it fails to measure is the importance of purpose and belonging to a community. And that is what dual immersion gives San Bernardino County… Norton gives our students a sense of purpose and belonging to something greater, an international world.” 

Ramos then encouraged an elementary student of hers, Laura Gutierrez, to read the poem “When I Was One” by A.A. Milne in English and the Spanish poem “En mi cara redondita” by Gloria Fuertes. 

Lewis Center board member Lucy Tello also shared why she has deepened her commitment to Norton over the years. 

“I was born and raised in San Bernardino and attended and graduated from local public schools. Today, I am the proud parent of three daughters who attend Norton, where my family has been deeply involved since my oldest started TK eight years ago,” Tello stated. “I currently serve as the PTO elementary vice president, and I’m honored to be one of the newest members of the Lewis Center board. I stand before you today to express my unwavering support for renewing Norton’s charter and to urge you to vote in favor of preserving this vital part of our community. As a parent, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible impact Norton has on our children and families. Coming from a family of educators and education advocates, including my father, who once served on this very board, and my mother, a retired preschool teacher, I deeply understand the value of a strong, mission-driven school… I witnessed this transformation firsthand in my own daughters. My oldest, once a shy and quiet TK student, has blossomed into a confident young person. She has gained a Taiwanese pen pal, participated in Poetry Out Loud, and will be recognized this week for her writing… My middle daughter (who I’m not going to look at because she’s going to make me cry) is here today as part of junior ASB. She has excelled academically while also participating in elementary cross country and soccer. My youngest, now in kindergarten, has grown tremendously over the past two years, both socially and academically, thanks to the support and encouragement of her teachers. The dedicated teachers and staff at Norton work tirelessly to provide every child with attention.” 

The Lewis Center’s financial advisor John Phan also spoke to board, testifying to the financial stability that Norton has achieved since the building of its new campus. 

“I helped Norton with their bond financing in 2020… I finance 80 charter schools throughout the nation, 40 in California… My expertise is financial ratios, financial analysis for charter schools… There are two financial ratios that investors and authorizers look at when reviewing financials of a charter school. One [financial ratio] is debt service coverage ratio and the other [financial ratio is] days cash on hand,” Phan explained. “The debt service coverage ratio shows how much a borrower covers in debt payments based on their net income. Days cash on hand measures how much liquidity a borrower has to cover expenses. In  the fiscal year 2024, Norton had a debt service coverage ratio of 2.42 times their minimum requirement.. Norton also had $9.7 million of unrestricted cash and investments. Their days cash on hand was 162 days. The minimum requirement is 45 days… We had a call with our investors two months ago. One comment was from Nuveen. Nuveen is the largest charter school investor in the nation… Their comment was that they wish that all their clients and their schools were like Norton. Not only that, they specifically asked Lisa [Lamb] and David [Gruber]… to help out their other schools. They asked if they can be available to give calls to their schools that they invested in. That’s how strong financially… Norton is.” 

After Norton’s presentations, board members asked questions about Norton’s dual immersion program. Specifically, board member Andrea De Leon asked about what new strategies will be included in Norton’s Academic Improvement Plan (AIP). 

Lewis Center Coordinator of Academic Support Services Toni Preciado answered many of these questions, explaining Dr. Jose Medina’s C6 translanguaging program that Norton has adopted over the last couple years.

“So I’m concerned,” De Leon responded, “about [Norton] having taken this long to start these implementations of these… changes.”

“Norton is 17 years old… When we started in 2008… all our teachers and our staff were trained through CABE [California Association for Bilingual Education] best practices. The dual immersion research coming from Thomas and Collier at the time was about separation of language… It was like, this is English time, this is Spanish time, and never the two shall meet. That’s what dual immersion was in the past,” Preciado explained. “[In the last] four to five years new research has come out… [about] translanguaging and bridging… While our program was born 17 years ago under one dual model, as with all practices, research has been done, research has been refined, and we are now modifying our practices to reflect the most recent research in dual language.” 

“My grandmother would have called it Spanglish,” De Leon replied. “It worked for generations.” 

De Leon also expressed concern about Norton’s priorities and readiness to implement new strategies for the school’s AIP. 

“I hope that the importance of what’s going on today is remembered tomorrow, and that as we move forward, that it doesn’t just say, ‘Hurrah, we did it, and now let’s just get back to what we were doing before that,’” De Leon said. “I think there’s a little bit of a lost way trying to educate 850 teachers. Around the nation 350 schools around the nation participate in Taiwan trips and participate in Chile trips. You’ve lost your way, and our way is about Latinos sitting here, right here in front of you, and them needing an education… they’re depending on you, and… I’m begging you to please focus on the students.” 

Board members Ryan McEachron and Laura Mancha both voiced support to renew Norton’s charter renewal.

“I’d like to thank the staff… and teachers that are here from Norton,” Mancha said. “And I just want to say I wish all of our charter schools were like Norton.” 

McEachron also clarified that board members had three options for the vote on Norton’s charter renwal: 1) renew as-is, 2) deny and 3) renew with conditions. 

“We are able to do one of three things here: 1) we are able to approve based upon the petition that’s been submitted, 2) we are able to deny based upon the petition that’s been submitted, or 3) we are able to approve with conditions,” McEachron explained. “In my previous position when I was on the Victorville Planning Commission, we would approve conditional use permits for businesses all the time… Every single time they had conditions… Never once do I recall approving any project without having a condition of approval on it, even if it was only one, but in most cases, it was several… [Norton] staff wrote an exemplary report on what they feel needs to be done. But nothing in there says that we should deny. What it does say is that they would like to work with the petitioner to make sure that all these things are brought up to where they need to be, including the academic improvement plan [AIP]. And I see nothing in here that should cause this board to deny this petition.” 

The Vote

Norton received a 4-1 vote. All members of the SBCBOE voted to renew Norton’s charter for two years with conditions, except board member Rita Fernandez-Loof.

Looking Forward

Students and staff both expressed relief that the board voted to approve Norton’s charter for the maximum of two years. 

“There was a lot of tension at the meeting. It was kind of stressful to watch,” Norton student ambassador Desiree Gago (‘25) said. “But, overall, I was really happy with the outcome and support that we had from all the members of our school that attended. I think the board members seeing all the support, too, showed them how much of a community our school is and how connected we are to each other.” 

“I also think it is important for students, especially high school students, to understand the importance of meetings like these,” Gago (‘25) continued. “You see what huge decisions are made at these formal meetings and how they can affect your community.”

“During the meeting, we definitely experienced a wide array of emotions. At first we showed up feeling extremely confident. We were proud of our school, and we thought, ‘We’re going to get this renewal. No problem!’ But as the meeting progressed and the questions asked by the board members intensified, there was a slight falter of confidence. Nevertheless, we still felt proud,” Norton ambassador Maximilian Goodly (‘27) said. “After the vote, emotions were extremely high. I felt absolutely ecstatic that Norton would be able to continue, that the charter was renewed, and that other students would be able to have the same opportunities (if not better) than what I’ve already experienced.” 

In a staff meeting on Wednesday, Mar. 12, 2025, Preciado expressed her gratitude for the Norton community’s support during the renewal process. 

“I have so much gratitude for the work that [staff does],” Preciado said. “I get to stand up there in front of the five… elected officials… [And that] responsibility does not fall lightly on my shoulders. Please know that to stand up there and to summarize the work that each of you do in a 15 minute presentation–it doesn’t do it justice. It doesn’t do it justice.” 

“It was nerve-wracking to watch because some of the board members were asking hard questions,” high school computer science teacher Daniel Ruiz. “But I am confident we will improve. We need more time to work as departments more efficiently. Currently not having department chairs and the time to improve has been very difficult on us.” 

“The charter renewal has been weighing heavily on us and creating an extra layer of stress during this school year,” middle school math teacher Marco Lara said. “I am relieved now that our students will have some stability for the next two years, but we have some steps to make. Two specific things come to mind. First, we should get our library up and running; it is important to show that we care about our literacy.  Second, I would like to see some stability in our math and science departments. We have had a lot of teacher turnover in our STEM departments, and it has been hard to build a culture without consistency.”

“Watching the renewal meeting was a mix of relief and determination,” high school Spanish teacher Jose Hernandez said. “It was reassuring to hear [board member] Laura Mancha’s positive remarks about Norton, but the critiques made it clear that we still have a lot of work to do. It reinforced that while we’re making progress, we must be strategic and focused in our efforts to improve… It’s a victory, but it’s also a challenge. The two-year renewal gives us the opportunity to prove that Norton is capable of significant growth. There’s a strong sense of responsibility to ensure that we move from red to yellow—and ultimately to green—so that we create lasting success for our students and community.”

Following Assembly Bill 1505, Norton will need to realize steps for improvement outlined in their AIP, file another charter renewal petition in two years, and face another renewal vote from the SBCBOE. 

In an email sent to all staff Tuesday, Mar. 11, Dr. Lamb noted the fortitude of students and staff and the importance of moving forward. 

“I am so impressed by our students who sat through four hours of board business with the best behavior and obvious Rocket Pride. They demonstrated not just patience, but character, determination, and unity,” Dr. Lamb said. “This is our time to pull together and stay focused on our mission. No other school does what we do. We provide opportunities and successes for our students that will never be fully measured by a dashboard. That is our greater purpose… Do not underestimate the power of what we can accomplish together.”