Parents of scandal-plagued school want to keep it open

Uprep's board takes no stand,

leaves academy in limbo

Though University Preparatory Charter Academy in East Oakland is plagued by a cheating scandal and faces possible closure next month, parents and students insist it is a wonderful school that must stay open.

"I've never seen anything like it," said James Thomas, who graduated in 2005 and attends Cal State East Bay. "You've got test scores going up and kids wanting to go to college."

But the public high school's own governing board -- mostly out-of-towners hand-picked by the school's volatile founder, Isaac Haqq -- is not so sure.

At a packed meeting earlier this week at the school, known as Uprep, the four board members wrestled with how to respond to a warning from the Oakland Unified School District that Uprep will be closed in August unless they fix a host of problems, including their own violations of California's public meetings law...

This from the San Francisco Chronicle.