(a) For purposes of implementing the federal Race to the Top program established by Sections 14005 and 14006 of Title XIV of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), the governing board of a school district, county superintendent of schools, or the governing body of a charter school or its equivalent, shall implement, for any school identified by the Superintendent as persistently lowest-achieving pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 53200, unless the Superintendent and the state board determines, to the extent allowable under federal law, that the school has implemented a reform within the last two years that conforms to the requirements of the interventions required by the Race to the Top program and is showing significant progress, one of the following four interventions for turning around persistently lowest-achieving schools described in Appendix C of the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for the Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number 221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009:

(1) The turnaround model.

(2) The restart model.

(3) School closure.

(4) The transformation model.

(b) Prior to the governing board meeting to select one of the four interventions described in subdivision (a), the governing board of a school district, county superintendent of schools, or the governing body of a charter school or its equivalent, with one or more persistently lowest-achieving schools shall hold at least two public hearings to notify staff, parents, and the community of the designation and to seek input from staff, parents, and the community regarding the option or options most suitable for the applicable school or schools in its jurisdiction. At least one of those public hearings shall be held at a regularly scheduled meeting, if applicable, and at least one of the public hearings shall be held on the site of a school deemed persistently lowest-achieving.

(c) In addition to meeting the requirements specified in Appendix C of the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for the Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number 221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009, a persistently lowest-achieving school implementing the turnaround or transformation model may participate in a school-to-school partnership program by working with a mentor school that has successfully transitioned from a low-achieving school to a higher-achieving school.

(1) For purposes of this article, a mentor school is a school that meets either of the following:

(A) The school has exited Program Improvement pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act.

(B) The school has increased, in the statewide rankings based on the Academic Performance Index, by two or more deciles over the last five years, using the most recent data available.

(2) The principal and, at the discretion of the principal, the staff of a mentor school shall provide guidance to a persistently lowest-achieving school to develop a reform plan for the school using the required elements of the turnaround or transformation model, and provide guidance and advice on how the mentor school was able to transform the culture of the school from low-achieving to higher-achieving and how that transformation could be replicated at the school implementing a turnaround or transformation model.

(3) To the extent that federal funds are made available for this purpose pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 53101, the mentor school shall receive funds for serving as a mentor school. As a condition for receipt of funds, the principal, and at the principal’s discretion, the staff, of a mentor school shall meet regularly with the assigned persistently lowest-achieving school for a period of at least three years.

(Added by Stats. 2010, 5th Ex. Sess., Ch. 2, Sec. 8. (SB 1 5x) Effective April 12, 2010.)