Report details growth of charter schools in California
The charter school movement has continued to grow in California, with more schools cropping up throughout the state, according to a report Tuesday from the California Charter Schools Association.
This fall, 100 new charters opened, bringing their total to 982, nearly three times as many as there were a decade ago, the association said. Charter schools are publicly funded and tuition-free, but they are run independently of school districts -- mostly, by nonprofit organizations.
About 412,000 California children attend a charter school this year, 48,000 more than did last year. Nearly 7 percent of all the state's public schoolchildren attend one. In Oakland, home to more than 30 charter schools, the rate is more than twice as high.
To view the enrollment figures, visit the association's website at www.calcharters.org.
School district to save millions on energy bills
Liberty Union High School District expects six-digit savings with a solar energy project it will undertake next year.
District trustees last month signed off on a deal that should reduce the agency's energy bill by $125,000 the first year alone.
The venture involves installing about 10,000 solar panels atop parking stall canopies that will be built at all three high schools as well as putting them on parts of the playing fields at the Freedom and Heritage campuses that
Mt. Diablo school district estimates Clayton Valley High charter conversion could cost up to $4.2 million a year
CONCORD -- The Mt. Diablo school district now estimates it would lose between $1.8 million and $4.2 million annually starting in 2012-13 if Clayton Valley High converts to a charter school.
"It could go up or down from one year to the next," Superintendent Steven Lawrence told a group of parents and principals during a Monday meeting to discuss the budget.
The district is grappling with state laws that force unified school districts to pay high school charter conversions about $941 more per student than they receive from the state. Lawrence said he has asked Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson if they would try to change the laws.