After much hemming and hawing, the California Department of Education released its list of 188 of the state’s most “persistently low-achieving schools” on Monday, a most dubious honor bestowed on seven schools in San Jose: Joseph George, Ocala, August Boeger, Herbert Hoover and Peter Burnett Middle Schools, Escuela Popular Accelerated Family Learning, and Cesar Chavez Elementary.

Although schools knew who made the hit list back in February, the DOE wasn’t exactly looking to sing the results from the rooftops. After all, it took more than basic reading and math skills to calculate what have been deemed the lowest five percent of the state’s schools, and those marked with the scarlet ‘5’ have to do a whole lot more than gussy up their curtains.

Schools will be asked to choose one of four options by June: Either boot the principal and increase instruction time, boot the principal and send half the staff out the door with him, become a charter school, or just call the whole thing off and close.

Understanding all the possible scenarios comes in somewhere above Fly’s reading level—there nothing in state law that specifies when changes must be implemented, and it remains unclear what would happen should California finally bag some of that Race to the Top money in the second round—or how schools who’re already preparing for a March 15 tickertape parade of pink slips ought to re-strategize if they’re also going to have to make a massive staff change. The schools will, however, be eligible for $50,000 to $2 million in funds to help them make the changes.