Santa Barbara Charter School finds new insurance policy in the nick of time

GOLETA, Calif.-Santa Barbara Charter School's Director of Education Laura Donner said the school notified families on Tuesday there would not be a gap in insurance coverage leading to a temporary closure.

During a message to parents on Monday the charter school explained that following the "unfortunate occurrence involving former teacher Steven Schapansky, our school's general liability insurance carrier has refused to renew our insurance."

Steven Schapansky, 54, was arrested over the summer, but failed to show up for his first court appearance in September.

The teacher is accused of child molestation and secretly recording children changing clothes on at least two occasions.

He was last seen in Fresno.

The school's insurance plan was set to expire on Wed. Oct. 9.

Under California Law charters operate independently and are therefore considered a separate entity from the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

Donner said the board of trustees solved the problem just in time with the help of other charters.

"We have been struggling over the last few months to find general liability insurance to cover our school and unfortunately as a school leader my colleague and myself have spent countless hours to find insurance," said Donner, "and luckily we were able to come through with an insurance called Charter Safe that is a consortium  of charter schools that pool together, that cover on another with general liability insurance."

Donner said schools aren't the only entities having insurance issues.

"I think part of the issue that we are facing is what a lot schools and businesses and individuals are facing in California of just the lack of coverage for all types of insurances and being able to find affordable coverage for schools, for homes, for businesses, it is a really big deal," said Donner.

Donner said Santa Barbara Charter is the 20th charter in the state of California and the first in this area.

A suit has been filed by parents against Santa Barbara Unified, and the charter school and County Superintendent of Schools.

The parents of fifth and sixth graders hired attorney Barry Cappello to represent them.

To protect the children's identities the case is filed on behalf of minors "Jane Doe" and "Rachel Doe."

A separate case was filed as a personal injury claim against the teacher, the school and the district.

Donner chose not to comment on the ongoing legal issues.

The Board of Trustees did have the reading of the first draft of an updated sexual abuse and misconduct policy.

Donner considered that a regular review.

Parents leaving campus with children were reluctant to talk about what families and the school have been dealing with, but one parent expressed that she wished the school had notified them earlier about the insurance issue that must have been brewing for some time.

Donner confirmed the following letter that was posted online is the letter that was sent parents explaining the insurance situation linked to the missing teacher:

Dear families and staff of Santa Barbara Charter School,

Following the unfortunate occurrence involving former teacher Steven Schapansky, our school's general liability insurance carrier has refused to renew our insurance. As a result, this has forced us to go to an already tight market to secure insurance for the school. Our liability insurance is set to expire on October 9, 2024.

Please know that we are doing all we can to secure insurance for the School. We have been working with a competent, well-connected insurance broker to procure insurance and also working directly with the state's only charter school joint powers insurance agency (Charter SAFE) to gain access to the liability insurance membership pool for charter schools.

However, it may come to pass that our small school will not be able to secure sufficient insurance to continue our operations. We will update you every day this week regarding our ability to procure insurance and how this affects our ability to continue operating our school.

With our current insurance, we are able to remain open through Wednesday, October 9th. If we do not have insurance in place by October 9th, we will not be able to have students or staff on either campus (HBP, classroom, and ASP will be closed) on Thursday, October 10th. We will turn October 10th into a teacher in-service day, with no students on campus. We will then take a day from the future and turn that into a student day, so we do not shorten the educational calendar. Friday, October 11th is Yom Kippur, which is a holiday with no school programming nor ASP.

We realize this is incredibly disruptive to everyone. We will keep you informed each step of the way, so that you can make alternate arrangements for your child(ren) if there is no school on Thursday or, in the worst case, the School is unable to continue operations after Oct. 10, 2024.

We are cautiously optimistic that we will have sufficient general liability insurance in place by October 9th and that there will be no disruption in the education of your child(ren).

We are continuing to do everything we can to get insurance in place, and hope that we will continue school as usual on October 10th and beyond.

If there is a further delay to acquiring insurance, we will inform you as soon as possible, and provide you with plans and next steps. If for some reason we cannot procure any insurance, we will work diligently with every student and each parent/guardian to ensure a smooth transition to another school.

We will continue to keep you informed every step of the way and we appreciate your continued support for Santa Barbara Charter School. We will update everyone again tomorrow via Parent Square. We also will be holding a Circle of Trustees meeting tomorrow, Tuesday October 8, at 3:30pm in Shalon's classroom #505. link to agenda 1.2 Agenda October 8, 2024

In Community,

Laura Donner, Director of Education, donner@sbunified.org (mailto:donner@sbunified.org)

Charter school families can now look forward to celebrating the season at the Summer and Shine Fall Dance in the Goleta Valley Jr. High Cafeteria on Friday, Oct. 18.

Your News Channel will have more on the charter school tonight on the news.