By Rev. Darryl B. Heath

I am deeply disappointed by the recent reporting on St. HOPE Public Schools. The articles not only miss the mark, they cast an unfair and unbalanced shadow over a school system that has been working faithfully to uplift our community.

As someone who has witnessed the impact of St. HOPE up close, I cannot allow that narrative to stand unchallenged.

My wife and I have raised our two great-nephews as our sons, and they have been part of the St. HOPE family for years. One graduated from Sac High in 2023 and attends UCLA. The other is a senior at Sac High with aspirations to attend Sierra College, Sacramento City College, or Diablo Valley College for two years and then transfer to a four-year university. 

Their journeys are not abstract statistics to me, they are lived testimony.

What our family cherishes most about St. HOPE is the sense of community. For my nephews, it has been more than a school; it has been home. It is a place where they have been safe, supported, challenged, and believed in.

One nephew worked at Underground Books and even helped with the construction of the modernized PS7 Elementary School the summer after his freshman year of college. Both young men have grown into thoughtful, disciplined, and insightful leaders in part because of the education, life skills, and relationships they developed at St. HOPE.

St. HOPE serves a historically underserved community. More than 80% of PS7 scholars are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Yet St. HOPE is disrupting the predictable outcomes that often accompany poverty.

Ninety-seven percent of Sac High’s class of 2025 were accepted to four-year colleges, many as first-generation college students. More than half the class of 2026 already has received acceptances from universities across the country, including Washington University, UC Merced, CSU Fullerton, Alabama State, and Sacramento State.

And St. HOPE doesn’t stop at acceptance letters. This past fall, the schools helped 30 Sac High scholars attend an HBCU college fair, where they received 69 on-the-spot acceptances and $204,000 in scholarships. That is what it looks like when a school is committed to helping students go to, and through, college.

After reading the recent articles, I had questions because the reporting did not align with what I have personally experienced. I reached out to St. HOPE for clarity, and what I learned stands in stark contrast to the narrative being pushed. African American scholars at both PS7 and Sac High are outperforming their peers in the Sacramento City Unified School District in English language arts. Math proficiency remains a challenge, not only at St. HOPE but across the district, and St. HOPE has implemented additional interventions at every level to address it.

Regarding teacher retention, the picture painted in the media is simply inaccurate. Of the teachers eligible to return this school year, 83% did so. That is not a mass exodus. The teachers who remain are there because they believe in the mission, the vision, and the young people they serve.

St. HOPE Public Schools is not perfect. No school is. But what troubles me is the unwillingness of certain news outlets to acknowledge the successes, the progress, and the lives being changed. Why is the focus exclusively negative? Why is there no room to celebrate the victories of students who are beating the odds?

My hope is that our community will look beyond the headlines. Visit the campuses. Talk to the teachers, staff, students, and families. See for yourself what makes these schools special. My nephews have thrived at St. HOPE Public Schools, and countless other scholars have as well. When you take the time to see the full picture, you will recognize the value St. HOPE brings to our community, including to my own family.

EDITOR’S NOTE:Rev. Darryl B. Heath is a pastor at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Sacramento and proud guardian of two St. HOPE Public Schools scholars.