The Sacramento Bee du lieu suivant : Sacramento, California • B4

V1N39VIAI yiovna WlZlQ "IVNId 3383VS -e- B4 The Sacramento Bee Tuesday, January 2 1,2003 9 Obituary it Martin Luther King walked a long way to give us our civil rights. We 're doing the same thing Shana Kelley, 1 3 for him. 5 5 Charter: Prosser Creek's future uncertain butted the charges, saying that students who live in Nevada were included accidentally in the California attendance reports, but that the error was corrected before the FCMAT study was complete. Attorneys also said that in serving students ages 20 and older, Prosser Creek was following the advice of the state Department of Education, which said on its Web site that there is no maximum age for enrollment in a charter school as long as the students are working toward a high school diploma. On the question of teacher cre-dentialing, Prosser Creek's lawyers said the school's administrators were following advice from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which said that unlike traditional public school teachers, charter school teachers are not required to hold a credential in the specific subject they teach as long as they hold a credential of some sort.

Any deficiencies in special education were the fault of the Tahoe Truckee school district because it was responsible for providing these services, Prosser Creeklaw-yers contended. The FCMAT audit then went to the state Department of Education, whose lawyers sided with Prosser Creek on most of the issues. Consequently, Delaine Eas-tin, then-state schools superintendent, told Nobili to release the bulk of the funds to the school. Eastin, who left office Jan. 5, acknowledged in her letter to Nobili the difficulty caused by state CONTINUED FROM Bl which had its charter revoked and ultimately closed.

Hailed as schools of choice, charter schools are funded by the state but exempt from many of the rules that govern traditional public schools. In the 10 years since they were established in California, that freedom also has led to nagging concerns about how to ensure quality in the state's 436 charter schools. "It was certainly a great vision of being released from all the small details of statutes," said Greg Geeting, assistant executive director of the state Board of Education and a member of the state's advisory commission on charter schools. "But the envelope got pushed." Prosser Creek was established in 1998, approved by the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District as a kindergarten through 12th-grade program. Since then, the school's enrollment has grown more than 240 percent, to about 1,000 students, expanding to sites in Tahoe City, Cottonwood and Sacramento County, and taking on independent study students in Sacramento, South Lake Tahoe, Yuba City, and Washoe County, Nev.

The school's executive director, Jayna Gaskell, says the district, with about 5,000 students scattered over 720 square miles, is facing declining enrollment and fears the competition presented by her school's small class size and individually-tailored education. Patrick Gemma, the Tahoe Truckee superintendent, says he welcomes a charter school in concept but is concerned about the financial health of Prosser Creek. In his efforts to oversee the school, Gemma said, he is hamstrung by an education code "with no teeth." (We are) faced with an untenable situation where (we) have 66 the instance the has such a and opinion the code so clear Tom chief executive Fiscal Crisis Assessment This is first where department taken strong different when seemed to us." Henry officer of the and Management Team Sacramento BeeLezlie Sterling Brejelle Taylor, 1 0, front center, waves a multicolored pompom on the steps of the state Capitol, where speakers praised King's life and paid tribute to his dream of freedom and opportunity. March: Many participants were opposed to Iraq war Alden Barber, Boy Scout executive By Elizabeth Hume BEE STAFF WRITER Honesty, trustworthiness, leadership, citizenship, confidence, bravery these are part of the Boy Scout law, which Alden Barber spent his life trying to make available to all boys across the country. In 1931, when he joined the Boy Scouts of America as a 12-year-old member of Chico's Troop 12, little did he know that 36 years later he would be the national leader of the organization.

"It molded his life," said longtime friend and fellow scout executive Loren Dahl. "He wanted to make Scouting available throughout the U.S. to more boys in all areas, regardless of income or social status." Mr. Barber Alden Barber died Friday evening of a stroke in San Ramon Regional Medical Center. He was 81.

Born in Chico in 1 9 1 9, he graduated from Chico High School in 1935 and went on to attend Chico State College, where he majored in science and English. After college, Mr. Barber became a reporter and editor for the Chico Record. In 1940 he entered the professional ranks of the Boy Scouts of America as a field executive for the Crescent Bay Council in Santa Monica. Shortly after rejoining the Scouts, Mr.

Barber took a leave of absence to enlist in the Army Air Corps, becoming a bombardier on a B-24 during World War II. He was en route to Hawaii when the war ended. When he returned home, he rejoined the Boy Scouts as an assistant executive in West Los Angeles. He later served as an executive in Marysville, Sacramento and the Chicago area. "The whole family was involved in his career," said his son, Mark Barber.

"He was a great visionary for the Boy Scouts. That was his real passion what the movement could be." In 1967, Mr. Barber was appointed chief executive of the national Boy Scouts of America. "Though he didn't quite make it, during his tenure his objective was to get one-third of all the boy population involved in Scouting," said Doug McDonald, executive and CEO of the Golden Empire Council in Sacramento. "He wanted to reach out to different ethnic groups and inner-city kids." In his 10 years as national leader of the Boy Scouts, Mr.

Barber expanded the Exploring Program to include special-interest Explorer groups and opened it up to high school girls. He also was instrumental in launching the High Adventure Program for Exploring with four additional High Adventure bases and the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. As chief Scout executive, Mr. Barber met with Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford in the Oval Office. He also traveled throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and Central and South America to talk about the Boy Scouts.

After a Scouting career that spanned 36 years, Mr. Barber retired in 1976. He recorded his Boy Scout experiences in his book, "Recollections and Reflections, 50 Years in the Boy Scouts of America," published in 1994. For the remainder of his life, Mr. Barber continued to work with young people in such organizations as the Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation.

A celebration of his life is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Fremont Presbyterian Church, 5770 Carlson Drive. Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Mitzi Lee Barber of San Ramon; daughters, Sharon Bar-nett of Camden, S.C., Susan Lea-mans of Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz County, and Maryann Mohn of San Jose; son, Mark Barber of Westin, a granddaughter and two grandsons -both Boy Scouts. "Now they have a chance to experience the same sort of values that he worked so hard to deliver to the young people of America," said their father, Mark Barber. The Bee's Elizabeth Hume can be reached at (916) 321-1203 or ehumesacbee.com.

agencies offering different interpretations of charter school law. She wrote that the Department of Education should work with FCMAT to establish a consistent interpretation. Earlier this month, in light of the controversy, the state Board of Education agreed to revisit charter school regulations, starting with the conditions under which such schools can enroll students age 20 and over. The proposed rule, which says that adult students can only be funded if they have been continuously enrolled since they were teens, would be stricter than what exists for regular public schools. The head of FCMAT said that in the more than 300 reports his agency has done, its findings never have been in such discord with the Department of Education.

"This is the first instance where the department has taken such a strong and different opinion when the code seemed so clear to us," said Tom Henry, chief executive officer of FCMAT. Nobili said his office paid FCMAT between $15,000 and $20,000 for the report, and that the whole controversy could have been avoided if the Department of Education had given him the direction he asked for several months ago. "From the onset, we requested legal opinions from the Department of Education," Nobili said. "They would not provide them." Michael Hersher, a lawyer with the Department of Education, said his office typically doesn't get involved in disputes between charter schools and sponsoring districts. The Prosser Creek case was unusual, he said, because it escalated to the point that required a legal opinion from his agency.

By then, FCMAT already had done its audit. Prosser Creek director Gaskell said she is relieved to have received the funds but remains concerned about the future of her school. When its charter is up in June, Tahoe Truckee district trustees will decide whether to renew it. "The district is looking for anything to hang us on," Gaskell said. "The question remains how much are they really willing to listen to the truth versus how desperately are they looking for things to hang us on." The Bee's Laurel Rosen can be reached at (916) 773-7631 or Irosen sacbee.

com. CONTINUED FROM Bl South Sacramento Youth Group sang and marched. "Martin Luther King walked a long way to give us our civil rights," said 13-year-old Shana Kelley. "We're doing the same thing for him." According to the Nobel Foundation, between 1957 and 1968, King traveled more than 6 million miles and spoke more than 2,500 times at events protesting injustice and promoting peace. In 1964, at age 35, King was the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the $54,123 prize to further the civil rights movement. Promoting that spirit nearly 35 years after King's death, march participants waved multicolored pompoms and carried purple balloons as they proceeded down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Sacramento City College before heading to the west steps of the Capitol. En route, participants streamed past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. As they made their way to the west steps of the Capitol, they sang songs of peace and waved anti-war slogans.

For Jacqueline Galloway, the message of peace was significant in light of the looming war with Iraq. "We need peace, not war," she said. "Martin Luther King fought for peace. I'm here to keep his dream alive that we all can live and work together without violence." "King's whole message is about peace," said Jeanie Keltner, a former English professor at California State University, Sacramento. "The people do not want war." Local officials participated in the march, including Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, Sacramento Police Chief Arturo Vene-gas Jr.

and City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond. At the Capitol, speakers praised King's life and paid tribute to his dream of freedom, equality and opportunity for all people. Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacra-mento, said that the federal holiday is a time for people to remember their hard-won rights. "It's not a day off it's a day on," he said. He asked the audience to practice peace and tolerance at home and abroad.

Steinberg said just as King relied on young people to carry forward the civil rights movement, it is up to today 's youth to speak out against the impending war and change the direction of the country. "We all know what faces us in the coming months and years," he said. "Where is our hope? It is with the young people of this country. Speak up!" Freedom march committee member William Smith read excerpts from King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. At its conclusion, white doves were released and audience members embraced.

James Shelby, executive director and CEO of the Sacramento Urban League, praised the audience for having the courage and conviction to responsibility but no authority," he said Gemma and Alfred "Bud" No-bili, superintendent of the Placer County Office of Education, said they became concerned about Prosser Creek's financial viability when the school's debt reached $4 million and it made an approximate $1 million miscalculation in its bookkeeping on a total budget of about $6 million. The error was made in 2001-02, when the school overstated revenues and understated expenditures in calculating how much money it expected to receive through state block grants for charter schools. Nobili requested an investigation last spring by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assessment Team (FCMAT), a state agency charged with assisting school districts and county offices of education with financial matters. One of the issues under investigation was the validity of Prosser Creek's student attendance figures, which the state uses to fund schools. Nobili, whose office is responsible for funneling state money to the charter school, said he withheld $353,813 designated for Prosser Creek because an audit was under way.

The school sued Nobili for the money and lost. The FCMAT report, released in October, noted several areas of concern. The school had requested attendance funding from California for eight students who live in Nevada; for 13 students who are not allowed to enroll in Prosser Creek because they live in Butte County, which is not contiguous to Placer County; and for 35 students age 20 or older whose legal entitlement to enroll in the charter school was questioned by FCMAT. FCMAT also questioned the validity of attendance funding for students supervised by 25 teachers who either did not have valid credentials or were teaching outside the areas for which they are credentialed. Further, the report cited what FCMAT considered Prosser Creek's inadequate special education services.

Lawyers for Prosser Creek re- Balloons like the one held by Roderick Hunt lent a festive air to the march. The Martin Luther King Jr. flag reminded people of its inspiration. continue in the struggle for equality for all people. As a young man in Mississippi, Shelby participated in a sit-in protest at a Woolworth lunch counter and had bricks thrown at him.

Though scared, he was willing to sacrifice for a greater good. He encouraged the crowd to be brave and pursue their goals without resorting to violence. Among the many challenges that face America are the threat of war, a declining economy and fewer job opportunities, he said. "Who is speaking out against the impending war on Iraq?" he asked. Shelby said that many minorities, particularly African Americans, join the military because they have no other means of supporting themselves.

"The military should be a career option, not a job option," he said. A related job fair Monday at Florin Mall drew 1,200 people. The event was sponsored by Martin Luther King Jr. Expo and Job Fair Inc. More than 30 employers, professional groups and educational institutions distributed informational fliers and conducted informal job interviews.

The Bee's J.D. Sparks can be reached at (916) 321-1209 or jsparkssacbee.com. OUTPUT: 012003 23:09 USER: BFINLEY BEEBR0AD MASTER 06-26-02.