Nearly 300 people packed into the Sacramento County Board of Education meeting last Tuesday, many arriving by bus and wearing T-shirts that read“It’s never too late.”When the board voted 4-3 to reverse Twin Rivers Unified School District’s decision to shut down Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools, the room erupted. For the hundreds of students at the school—many of them immigrants, formerly incarcerated people, or parents returning to education as adults—the news felt like a lifeline restored.
But this victory comes with a complicated backstory. A state audit had uncovered that Highlands improperly collected $180 million in public funding and violated multiple education rules. The school operated across 50 sites statewide, serving 13,700 students when the problems surfaced. Twin Rivers, which earned $12.9 million in oversight fees from the charter between 2019-20 and 2023-24, faced legitimate criticism for looking the other way for so long. County school board trustee Heather Davis didn’t pull punches Tuesday night:“Why is Twin Rivers so passionate now, when it was going on for a long time. Where were they?”
The county board’s decision wasn’t a slam dunk. For four hours, lawyers and board members wrestled with conflicting evidence. In the end, they concluded the record didn’t definitively support revoking the charters—a narrow technical victory that masked deeper questions about accountability. What it did accomplish, though, was a fresh start under new leadership. Jonathan Raymond, Sacramento City Unified’s former superintendent, took over in July and immediately cleaned house: old board members were out, new ones installed, and policies were rewritten to comply with state law.
Yet the work is far from finished. Raymond is now pursuing an even bolder move: relocating the school’s authorizer from Twin Rivers to Yuba City Unified in Sutter County. He’s already filed a petition with the district and hopes to finalize the arrangement by September. The reasoning makes sense—many of the school’s students have migrated north where housing is more affordable and jobs are more plentiful. Enrollment has grown by 800 students since January, suggesting demand is real.
What’s remarkable about this story isn’t the financial scandal or the political maneuvering. It’s the persistence of the students themselves. Sonya Bonnett, a 68-year-old mother of four, testified about wanting her diploma on her wall. Others spoke of teachers who helped them learn English or earn credentials that open doors. These aren’t complaints about a school—they’re testimonies to a mission that, when executed honestly, genuinely matters. The question now is whether Raymond and his rebuilt team can deliver on the promise the charter was supposed to keep all along.
About the Author
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
