BUSD objects to charter academy use of vacant school
BARSTOW • Barstow Unified School District is recommending its Board of Trustees decline a charter school’s request to set up classrooms in the vacated Barstow Intermediate School facilities.
The board will be voting on the superintendent’s recommendation to deny Barstow Charter Academy use of the intermediate school Tuesday night. The charter school, which still hasn’t submitted its new charter petition, asked BUSD for access to the now empty campus for its grades nine through 12 school. Charter officials want to open the new high school by Fall 2010.
In the past, having a secured school site has been a top concern of board members when considering whether to approve a charter school. With this recommended denial, BCA will face a set-back and have to look for other options, Superintendent Susan Levine acknowledged. However, one of the reasons the district listed for denying the facility request was because BCA had not submitted its charter petition — a document detailing the academic and operational framework of the new school — to the district by the state’s Nov. 1 deadline.
The facility request by BCA officials indicated that they plan to get a charter approved by March 9, 2010. Asked whether the district made BCA aware of these deadlines, Levine said the district has no obligations to petitioners to provide that information, and neither did BCA solicit it. Charter academy officials were unavailable for comment Friday.
The district requesting a denial on several other grounds as well. While charter officials estimate that the school will serve 100 students, it did not provide both a “description of the methodology for the projections” and signatures of prospective students, according to the district’s agenda. The request also did not include a breakdown of prospective charter students by district school that the student would otherwise be attending — rather than the charter school.
“All those elements were missing in this request,” said Levine.
She noted, however, that the reason she believes BCA failed to get chartered in its first attempt was because of a pressed timeline, with the beginning of the school year fast approaching.
“I think they have more time to be successful in finding a facility” this time, Levine said.
The board meeting is Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the district office board room at 551 South Avenue H.
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(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com
