LA Unified board member wants new rules for how charters, traditional schools share campuses
Christopher Okula/KPCC
Thirteen years after voters allowed charter schools to share campuses with traditional public schools, the situation has turned volatile in Los Angeles.
Steve Zimmer, a member of the Board of Education over the Los Angeles Unified School District, will propose a measure at Tuesday's board meeting aimed at stopping the fighting. It involves new rules. But it's not within the district's power to do that. So Zimmer wants to ask legislators and the state education board to craft a rule book to go with Prop 39.
The law mandates California school districts contract space with charters, even if that space is in the same building as a traditional public school.
"It just kind of flared-up and exploded," said Sierra Jenkins, communications director at the California Charter School Association. "But I mean, it’s been brewing for awhile."
Zimmer said the new rules - yet to be written - could ward off litigation by clearly defining territory.
It may be late for that. The Association and L.A. Unified are already battling at the state Supreme Court over how to divvy-up shared space. Charters claim they aren't
