Tuesday's Douglas County School Board hearing on Sierra Crest Academy was likened to a courtroom.
We've been in enough courtrooms to know that Douglas County's only charter school was in need of a good defense attorney, and they didn't have one.
A good attorney would have told proponents that when they come up before the judge, they should not say what they're going to do to comply, but what they've already done.
Academy proponents knew the chances of having their charter renewed were pretty slim as early as January, when their board voted 5-0 not to seek renewal of the charter.
If they were not aware of the board action, the front page of The Record-Courier on Feb. 7 made it pretty clear that the academy was in danger of closing.
That was the moment to dust off the charter, check the weak spots and come up with an action plan to address the Douglas County School Board's concerns.
Having been founded in the early years of the charter school movement, we can understand that the school district wasn't the best entity to oversee the academy. But charter schools aren't unique in being required to meet certain conditions. Every school teacher in the state is required to take attendance, lesson plans aren't a new-fangled invention. These are the conditions of the test, and Sierra Crest's staff was accused of failing the test.
The best direction for those who hoped to save the school was to have already implemented the corrections and presented the school board with a good reason to keep the academy open.
As any judge will tell you, the important thing isn't what someone promises, but what they do.
