GCA History

Only serendipity, or possibly fate, can describe the extraordinary origins of the Golden Charter Academy.  In 2009, Scott Barton, a native of Fresno who had worked his way up as an animal curator at various zoos across the country, and had management experience at Disney World, returned to his hometown after 30 years to become the Chief Executive Officer of the Fresno Chaffee Zoo.  The ink on his contract was barely dry when Scott reconnected with an old college friend, Ed González, a fellow alumnus of Fresno State and the Superintendent/Principal of a small school district in Fresno County.  Over dinner, Scott and Ed discussed their respective careers and the state of both education and wildlife conservation.  They discussed the possibility of one day creating the perfect school, a “zoo school” that would promote the innate curiosity of children and their fascination for wildlife and the natural world.  Although intrigued by the possibilities, the conversation never moved beyond the conceptual.  Scott had a zoo to run and Ed was consumed with his career in school administration.  It would be another decade before the dormant idea was resurrected in spectacular fashion.

In 2012, three years after Scott and Ed’s dinner conversation, Robert Golden, a nationally-recruited football player from Edison High School in Fresno, was drafted as a free agent by the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the most storied franchises in the National Football League.  Robert had played college football at the University of Arizona, earning his degree in General Studies while playing for the Wildcats.  In 2018, after six years of playing on the nation’s largest sports platform, Robert was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs.  Prior to the season opener, however, Robert decided to change the direction of his life.  Although still at the peak of his athletic skills and with personal earnings in the rarified air of professional athletes, Robert had an epiphany in which he saw his future life’s purpose, not as a football player, but as a change agent for children in his underserved community.  Robert called an old friend from Fresno, C.J. Jones, and told him he envisioned a different life for himself, a life outside of football.  C.J., himself a standout college athlete who had returned to Fresno to work with youth in the community, knew of Robert’s heart for children and community change because the two friends had previously discussed creating a unique and innovative school targeted to underserved children.  Increasingly, Robert had found what he believed to be his life’s purpose during the offseason when he would return to Fresno and work with youth in the community.  C.J. offered to support Robert in whatever decision he would eventually make.  Robert made the difficult decision to leave football and join with C.J. to create this special type of school that would transform the community.  Robert enlisted the support of two more critical allies, both former teachers of his--Keshia Thomas, a community advocate who was serving as the Board President of the Fresno Unified School District, and his former high school teacher, Dr. Bard De Vore, a long-time educator with a history of successful work with disenfranchised students.  Together, Robert, C.J., Keshia, and Bard became the founders of the Golden Charter Academy.

In 2019, the year after Robert retired from professional football, he began recruiting individuals that could help him realize the vision he and C.J. had shared.  Robert was introduced to Dr. Brad Huff, a longtime Fresno educator with degrees from Harvard University and the University of Washington.  Dr. Huff had been recruited as the first Head of School of University High School, a nationally-acclaimed charter school, and the founder of the Valley Arts and Science Academy (VASA), a science-based charter school in Fresno.  He brought deep experience in program design and specific expertise in developing charter schools.  Dr. Huff then recommended his friend and fellow educator, Dr. Ed González, who recently retired as a District Superintendent and fresh from his doctoral program at Fresno State.  When Dr. González met the founders’ team, he recognized kindred spirits who were committed to the vision of creating an innovative school in the underserved areas of Fresno.  This reminded him of the conversation that he had had with Scott Barton so many years earlier.  Robert, in turn, saw in Dr. González a like-minded partner with extensive educational experience who could help him in his effort to create a new type of school that would expose the underserved children of his hometown to a new world of possibilities and opportunities.  Recognizing the need for additional charter school experience, Dr. Huff brought in Andra Christenson, his former principal at VASA, to lend support with ideas on curriculum and organization.  Dr. González remembered an outstanding environmental educator in his doctoral cohort, Dr. Rosanna Ruiz, who had a wealth of knowledge regarding placed-based education and environmental literacy and secured her to lead the writing of this innovative curriculum.  Coalescing as a unit, the Golden Charter Academy begin creating its mission, core values, and charter petition.  Dr. González immediately called Scott Barton, still the CEO of the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, and introduced Robert and the GCA team to the Zoo Leadership team.  The vision expressed at the dinner conversation in 2009 was married to the vision of community change that Robert and C.J. had created with the founder’s group.  The Golden Charter Academy set out to create the nation’s first K-8 public school that would be focused on the three core values of Stewardship, Equity, and Access and the mission to “Inspire Powerful Young Minds”.  When the Golden Charter Academy opens its doors in 2021, the children of southwest Fresno will have the opportunity to be on the front lines of an effort to completely redefine teaching and learning in public education.