On March 24, members of the Santa Maria-Bonita School District Board of Education voted unanimously against a local group’s petition to open a charter school in the Santa Maria area.
When making their decision, board members—along with district Superintendent Phil Alvarado, who was present at the meeting—argued that the Santa Maria Valley Charter School petition was insufficient and didn’t meet California Education Code requirements.
In an interview with the Sun, Alvarado said he, and ultimately the board, found faults with several of the petition’s components, including proposed financial resources and budgeting, facilities, and employment.
“The petition request proposed a school of approximately 300 students,” Alvarado said. “To operate a school that size, it costs about $2.5 to $3 million.
“Financially, their proposal—their numbers—didn’t work,” he continued.
Alvarado also said the petition was faulty because it didn’t identify a facility site. The petition is also lacking a safety plan, a proposed parking plan, and physical education requirements, he said.
The lack of a facility doesn’t seem to faze Dana Valverde, a spokesperson for the charter school.
“Things like facilities—you don’t do that until after the approval. It’s commonsense,” she said, adding that the school is working with a local Realtor to find a suitable location.
Valverde, who currently teaches at Manzanita Charter School in Lompoc, said the board’s denial of the petition “is just going to delay us” from opening.
Originally, the school planned to begin in August with 300 students in kindergarten through third grade. Now, Valverde said the plan is to open in January with only kindergarteners, and add on from there.
Valverde also said she has already submitted the charter’s petition to the California Department of Education. She plans to submit it to the Santa Barbara County Office of Education once the board of education approves the minutes for its March 24 meeting.
“The district doesn’t want to [approve the petition] because once one charter school starts, more will follow. I understand that,” she said. “But charter schools are already here—in Orcutt, and Lompoc’s doing the same thing.
“[The district] doesn’t want to lose the money, but this isn’t about money. It’s about the kids,” she said. “We’re trying to do something different for the kids.”
This article appears in Apr 1-8, 2010.