Long Beach, CA – Today, the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) honored the pioneering work of three distinguished California charter public school leaders with the CCSA Legacy Award at the 2024 California Charter Schools Conference. The Legacy Award was created in 2022 to recognize the groundbreaking work of education leaders in advancing the development of California’s public charter schools.
The CCSA Legacy Award is presented to leaders whose work can best be measured by the lives they have transformed through opportunities opened for students, the forward-thinking practices they nurtured in hundreds of classrooms, and the generations of educators they have inspired.
“The Legacy Award honors charter public school educators who are at the pinnacle of the field and recognizes their work to support students across an entire career. I have been proud to work alongside each of them to advance California’s charter school movement to reimagine public education,” said CCSA President and CEO Myrna Castrejón. “Their tenacity and sheer dedication to improving opportunities for public school students over the decades has changed countless lives.”
CCSA produced a special video series featuring the leaders who received this year’s Legacy Awards. Please click on the links to learn about those award winners.
The recipients of the 2024 CCSA Legacy Awards are:
Cameron Curry, CEO, The Classical Academies
As the CEO of The Classical Academies, Cameron Curry has been one of the state's most active and innovative charter school leaders. Curry was a founding board member of The Classical Academies, chartered in 1999, and today serves the students of San Diego, Orange, and Imperial Counties with a high-quality, independent study option. He is an exceptional charter leader and used his background as a city manager to create a unique education model at the charter movement’s nascency. For over two decades, he has championed the nonclassroom-based school sector, supporting other schools in the space and advocating for the charter movement in his region and across the state. Curry was honored with the Hart Vision Award for Charter Leader of the Year in 2011 and has been a CCSA Member Council president and a Member of the CCSA Board.
Greg Moser, Partner (Retired), Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP
Greg Moser dedicated much of his legal career to supporting California’s newly created charter public school movement in the 1990s through his retirement in 2023. He was at the forefront, representing charter schools soon after the law establishing charter schools was passed in 1992. His legal work was vital to the growth of the charter school movement, not just in California but nationally. His experience representing self-insurance pools for healthcare districts, cities, and fire districts contributed to the creation of Charter SAFE, the nonprofit risk-sharing pool focused on addressing the shared risks of California charter schools. Originally formed and operated by CCSA in 2004, Charter SAFE remains a reliable source of risk management for most California charter public schools. In 2005, Moser became a founding CCSA’s Legal Advisory Committee member.
Frances Teso, Executive Director/CEO (Retired), Voices College-Bound Language Academies
Frances Teso was the founding CEO of Voices College-Bound Language Academies, which opened in 2007 to serve K-8 students in San Jose. Voices has since expanded to 5 campuses in the Bay Area and Stockton. Teso leaned into bilingual education in a culturally affirming way to fill a void in the traditional public school sector. Her work provided the charter movement with a proof of concept that could be replicated to support Spanish language learners across the state. Teso’s work to create high-quality bilingual education is an accomplishment for California’s public schools and fulfills the promise of charters. In 2020, Teso was honored as the Hart Vision Leader of the Year (Northern California).
About the California Charter Schools Association
The vision of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) is to build great public schools of joy and rigor that prepare all California students for success in college, career, community, and life. The mission of CCSA is to meet parent, educator, and community need for great public school options by supporting and advocating for high quality non-profit charter schools and sharing their success throughout California’s public schools. Learn more.
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