Can charter and public schools share space without fights? LAUSD’s $5.5-million solution
Five schools, including three charters, share the Westchester High School campus, making for a potential headache when it comes to drop-off and pick-up, serving food and using the library and athletic fields.
A plan unanimously approved Tuesday by the Los Angeles Board of Education won’t fix all the logistics at schools like Westchester, but it offers $5.5 million to make sharing campuses more manageable and collegial. The funding works out to about $100,000 for each of the 55 campuses that host one or more charters in the nation’s second-largest school system.
The funding represents a notable collaboration between board members Nick Melvoin, a charter ally, and Jackie Goldberg, a charter critic. It comes just one week after an unrelated but key compromise between the same two camps over controversial fees that senior district officials want to collect from charters.
These recent actions show that board members can work together on divisive issues. They also underscore the importance of upcoming school board elections, especially with new rules that give school boards more authority to reject new charters.
No one likes this sharing between charters and district schools, said Melvoin, “but we can do more to provide support to our district schools by easing the burden of sharing a campus. We can help the day-to-day operations run a little smoother, and maybe even promote a new spirit of collaboration.”
“I made substantial changes to Nick’s original motion and he accepted all of them,” said Goldberg, who added that the end result should be smoother lunch lines, easier student drop-offs and better play spaces.
The complications around sharing campuses are not all logistical. In some cases, a new charter school, which is run by a nonprofit board of directors, has recruited CONTINUE READING: LAUSD earmarks $5.5 million to ease sharing between charter and public schools - Los Angeles Times
