Schools

Charter School Must Move — Again, School Board Indicates

Pleas by dozens of students, parents and staff members from the Alameda Community Learning Center charter school failed to sway members of the Board of Education Tuesday night.

SUMMARY

Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC), a public charter school for grades 6-12, will likely have to move for the second time in two years, school board members indicated Tuesday night.

Dozens of ACLC students, parents and staff members spoke at a public hearing before the Alameda Board of Education, asking board members to let the school remain in its present location at Wood Middle School.

ACLC was housed at Encinal High School until the end of the 2012-13 school year, when it was bumped to make room for the new Junior Jets magnet middle school program at EHS. 

The charter school learned last Friday that its one-year lease at Wood MS would not be renewed for the 2014-15 academic year by the Alameda Unified School District. 

According to AUSD Superintendent Kirsten Vital, Wood MS needs some of the space currently occupied by ACLC's 300-plus students for new programs. Details of those programs were not provided to board members, although school officials indicated they are part of "restructuring" because of low academic performance at Wood.

As an alternative, the board asked Vital to explore a possible long-term lease for ACLC at the former Woodstock Elementary School on Third Street, which is being vacated by Alternatives in Action (the former Bay Area School of Enterprise, BASE), also a charter high school.

The AUSD is under pressure to find a solution by Feb. 1, the deadline imposed by a state law requiring school districts to provide space for charter schools that enroll a substantial number of local students.

The board also agreed to place a 1.75 percent pay increase for Alameda teachers on the consent calendar for its Jan. 28 meeting.

DETAILS

Students, parents and staff members from ACLC told board members that it cost the charter school more than $120,000 to move from EHS to Wood — roughly the equivalent of the salaries for two "facilitators," as the school's teachers are called.

They also said members of the ACLC community put in hundreds of hours of volunteer work last summer to improve the Wood facilities.

"I don't know if we can do it again," said one speaker.

Drake Hayes, an ACLC ninth grader, told board members, "I'm concerned that this puts ACLC at risk of closure."

Many asked the board to delay any move until AUSD has completed its facilities master plan, a process that's currently under way.

Other speakers said if ACLC is forced to move, the district should offer at least a 10-year lease at a new location and should pick up the tab for moving expenses. Supt. Vital, though, talked in terms of a five to six-year lease and said the district "must be careful not to make a gift of public funds."

Some board members briefly talked about adding portable classroom buildings at Wood to accommodate ACLC, but ultimately directed Vital to explore the long-term lease option.

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