In one year, an alarming number of teachers and students have left St. HOPE Public Schools.
Around 70% of teachers employed at St. HOPE one year ago are no longer in the classroom, according to documents obtained by The OBSERVER.
Those documents showed that of 54 teachers employed through St. HOPE’s schools one year ago, only 16 remain in their positions. Several became administrators, but the remainder left the charter schools completely.
The exodus highlights growing instability within the charter school network, raising concerns about staff retention, as St. HOPE schools enrollment declines simultaneously.
During the 2014-15 school year, Sacramento Charter High School had around 986 students, according to the California Department of Education. Ten years later, only 413 students remained at the school — a 58% enrollment decrease.
St. HOPE Interim Superintendent Elisha Parsons said she does not believe the number of teachers reported to have left referenced is accurate.
“I want to be transparent: I’m not sure where the 70% figure came from,” Parsons said. “That number appeared in a headline, but it’s not accurate. When we calculate teacher turnover, we compare staffing at the end of one school year to the beginning of the next. Using that method, and excluding teachers with emergency credentials, around 83% stayed. I’m still unclear how the 70% figure was calculated.”
The OBSERVER was sent a list of names of teachers said to have left the schools from an anonymous source that shows the turnover being around 70% as of November.
Sac Unified, which oversees the charter, also worked on an investigation through a memorandum of understanding, which found 44.7% of general education and special education teachers left between the end of the 2024-25 and the start of the 2025-26 school years.
The document said that figure does not include additional turnover that has occurred since the beginning of this school year. Parsons said the high turnover is because of credential issues.
“One of the things that we are specifically targeting right now is ensuring that we have teachers in the seats that have either a preliminary or clear credential because that is what the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing says is an effective credential,” she said. “If we would have kept teachers without required credentials on our staff and put them in a classroom, we would be out of compliance, and that’s not going to happen.”
The investigation from Sac Unified’s MOU, which trustees approved Dec. 18 and guides the district’s relationship with the charter until 2030, also found that as of October, only 44% of St. HOPE teachers held a preliminary or clear credential.
Vanessa Cudabac, vice president of Sac Unified’s teacher association who has taught at St. HOPE, said the reason for the charter school district’s high turnover is that teachers are not working for a contract and are treated poorly.
“They’ve been waiting and fighting for a contract since 2018 and each year there’s an extremely high turnover,” Cudabac said. “So there’s this pattern where teachers organize, they try to get a contract, they experience all of these extremely challenging working conditions, and then they leave.”
Last week, the California Employment Relations Board sent a letter to Parsons and other parties, finding that they had bargained in bad faith. The board found several violations such as canceling bargaining sessions without explanation and vague proposals on benefits.
Parsons said anyone can file an unfair practice charge at any time. She added that no complaints have been substantiated.
In addition, Cudabac cites several points of contention between teachers and management at St. HOPE, citing “at-will employment” as a contributor. She also added that the way teachers’ salaries can be tied into their evaluations is another point of contention.
She said in some industries it’s typical to be an at-will employee but not education, where teachers typically have two years’ probation. With at-will employment teachers can be let go for any reason.
“So this creates a very temporary status for the teachers, and they’re just kind of coming in and out,” Cudabac said.
Tayah Kirschenmin, a ninth-grade English teacher at Sacramento Charter High, said when a teacher leaves suddenly during the middle of the school year, a long-term substitute is hired to cover the class.
“The students at St. HOPE are just so used to teachers coming and going and having substitutes or uncredentialed teachers in their classrooms that it’s actually very difficult to gain their trust,” Kirschenmin said. “You have to prove yourself to them and let them know you’re here for the long run to support them and show it through your actions and words.”
Kirschenmin believes the high teacher turnover negatively affects students. She said the schools have a high number of uncredentialed staff who are not knowledgeable in teacher strategies and techniques, which makes them less effective than credentialed teachers.
“What ends up happening is we have so many students who are used to having inexperienced teachers or unqualified teachers that our students are often behind in their skills, for reading, for math, for science,” she said.
In the 2025 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress at Sacramento Charter High, around 50% met or exceeded standards in English language arts but only 4% met or exceeded standards in math.
Parsons said math was the only area of struggle at the school.
“Just math was in the red. I want to clarify that one — just math,” she said. “ELA, we’re actually in the green. Math has definitely been a challenge for us.
“I think also there’s a much larger situation. I think we’re getting back somewhat to normal in California, but COVID and teacher shortages impacted everyone.”
Despite the school having a majority of Black students, with 58% identifying, test results were lower for that group.
For Black students at Sacramento Charter High, 42% met or exceeded standard for English Language Arts and 2% met or exceeded standards in math — declines of 8 and 2 percentage points, respectively.
In addition, 36.4% of Black students were cited as college ready at Sacramento Charter High according to the California School Dashboard.
Kirschenmin said she also hopes the next superintendent — for which a search is underway — is qualified, credentialed and experienced, and that they protect and care about the staff and well-being of all.
“I do think there is a possibility for improvement at Sacramento High,” she said. “I do think that they can work to create a better relationship with [Sac Unified]. They just need to be honest and transparent about everything.”