Rocklin’s high school students must be prepared for the increasingly complex world of the 21st century. College admissions are more competitive than ever and students choosing to enter the workforce are required to be better educated and more skilled.

Rocklin and Whitney high schools’ college preparatory pathway emphasizes supporting students to complete the “A-G” University of California/California State University undergraduate admissions requirements and offers a broad selection of college-level Advanced Placement courses.

The success of these efforts earned Rocklin High recognition by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 500 high schools in the United States, a remarkable achievement for a general population high school, challenging all students to exceed expectations. Whitney High, in only its fourth year, is on the same path to earn this distinction.

Against this backdrop, Rocklin Academy charter school submitted a petition to the Rocklin school district to have taxpayers fund a new school in Rocklin, Western Sierra Collegiate Academy, for seventh through 12th grades.

Rather than build their own campus, Rocklin Academy requested this new school be squeezed onto one of Rocklin’s high school campuses, which are not designed to house the additional 540 students or to accommodate seventh- and eighth-grade students – 12- and 13-year-olds – alongside high school students who may be as old as 19.

Ironically, this attempt to overcrowd one of Rocklin’s high school campuses comes just six years after voters approved a measure to build a second high school in town – spending tens of millions of dollars to relieve the overcrowding this might re-impose.

In its application for taxpayer funds, Western Sierra proposes to try to duplicate a charter school in Santa Cruz called Pacific Collegiate Academy. Pacific offers college prep courses like those available at Rocklin’s two high schools. Pacific is praised for high test scores, which would be noteworthy – if it achieved extraordinary results from a cross-section of students.

But Pacific, in fact, does not have a student population like its community. Pacific’s students are predominantly white and come from affluent and highly educated households in a community that is predominantly Hispanic and largely low-income.

Rocklin Academy, another taxpayer-funded school, can’t boast of its success, however, without a full examination of the students it has served – and more particularly those it hasn’t.

Rocklin Academy reported to the state over the last five years the following demographics: less than one percent of its students received special education services; 1.4 percent were low-income; and almost none – just three-tenths of one percent – were English language learners.

Over that same period, the students of Rocklin differ strikingly: 10 percent received special education services; 12 percent came from low-income families; and 3.5 percent were English language learners.

That’s a 10-fold discrepancy between Rocklin Academy’s history and the students in our community. That’s not a minor deviation or a statistical probability.

In a public hearing, David Patterson of Rocklin Academy was asked what Western Sierra would offer students that isn’t available at a Rocklin high school.

“I don’t know,” he answered.

The Rocklin school board twice unanimously denied the request. The Placer County Board of Education carefully reviewed it and denied it.

If the school’s application is decided on its merits and not politics, state officials will reach the same conclusion that locally-elected leaders reached: this application for a taxpayer-funded school does not meet the requirements clearly set out in state law.