CLOVIS, Calif. _ When Shivjit Singh first started wearing a patka, or bandanna-style turban common among Sikh youth, a fellow student at Kastner Intermediate tried to snatch it off his head.
Singh wouldn't stand for it, he said at a Clovis Unified School District Board meeting earlier this year. He eventually received an apology from his classmate, who said he thought the headwear was just a fashion statement.
Members of the Punjabi community in Clovis Unified have proposed a charter school partially in response to a study that showed 67 percent of turbaned youth in Fresno experience some kind of bullying. The One & Only Academy would include a focus on mindfulness as a part of day-to-day instruction, as well as a curriculum taught in both English and Punjabi. It would be only the second school in the United States to include dual instruction in the language, according to Jakara Movement Executive Director Deep Singh.
But a staff report released recently recommends that the Clovis Unified School District board deny the charter petition on a number of grounds, including that the petitioners for the school are unlikely to successfully implement the program.
"Establishment of a charter school intended to shelter these children from bullying that targets their religious and ethnic identities _ will ultimately result in re-segregation of our schools," the report said.
The report also lists a number of concerns about the outlined plans, including: "recruiting a racially and ethnically diverse student population; its admissions procedures; its curriculum and teaching methods; its plans for serving special education; Section 504, English Learner, low-achieving, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students; and its budget and financial plans."
Harmit Juneja, lead petitioner for the school and currently an agricultural engineering teacher at Sunnyside High School, said the intention of the charter program is not to insulate kids. He said the role of the school would be to bring about cultural awareness, particularly through language instruction. Punjabi is the third-most spoken second language in the Central Valley, after Spanish and Hmong, according to the 2010 census. Punjabi instruction is also a way for second- and third-generation students to connect to their heritage.
The staff report also cites concerns about the charter's "religious entanglement," including in the proposed facilities, the instructional program, as well as in the name and logo. The school would be established on land owned by a local Sikh temple.
The name One & Only Academy is a reminder to be in the present moment, according to Juneja, and the school's logo would be a lotus flower.
For Juneja, that part of the report was particularly saddening because it implies members of the Sikh community cannot put forth a proposal like this without being seen through the lens of their religion.
"We'll change the name if it comforts the community," he said. "We thought it was beautiful."
Juneja said staff and faculty at the school would be subject to conflict-of-interest codes just like anywhere else.
By law, charter schools must be non-sectarian and open to all who wish to attend.
Gaganpreet Kaur, a Clovis West alumna, left Fresno for college but returned to be near her family and to become a teacher.
Now, she'd like to teach at the One & Only Academy because of its focus on mindfulness. The proposal before the board said students would practice mindfulness in three parts: 20 minutes at the beginning of the day, 10 minutes in the afternoon and five minutes before lunch. Mindfulness takes many forms, Kaur said, from active listening to meditation.
Kaur said she practices mindfulness with her students already, in a way that is familiar:
"When they are unkind, I ask them how they would feel if someone did this to them?" she said.
Kaur, who teaches at the Boys & Girls Club, said that bullies are often suffering too, and that a few minutes of mindfulness can help students become familiar with their emotions and express them in a constructive way.
Although mindfulness does have a place in the Sikh religion, Juneja said, One & Only charter's curriculum is based on a Stanford model of education.
Clovis Unified operates one charter school, the Clovis Online School. The Center for Advanced Research and Technology also started as a charter school but now operates independently. Both schools went through the petition, review and approval process before the board.
Clovis Unified spokeswoman Kelly Avants said the staff who reviewed the One & Only charter petition included dozens of people from the business office, curriculum office, school leadership office and superintendent's office. The review took months to complete.
"We support high quality public education in any form," Avants said. "Charters, when operating effectively, are a good alternative to comprehensive schools."
