ACLU says Oceanside unlawfully approved charter school
OCEANSIDE — The ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties is urging the Oceanside Unified School District to reconsider its decision to allow a performing arts charter school to open on the campus of what is now Jefferson Middle School, saying the move was “unlawful” because it creates barriers to admission for Latino students and others.
In a letter to the Oceanside school board, the ACLU’s legal director David Loy said that by approving the charter school plan, the board unlawfully agreed to academic and audition prerequisites for charter school admission, failed to guarantee future preference to students in Jefferson’s former attendance area, and “risked creating an unjustified disparate impact on Latino students.”
He advised the school board to “slow down, step back, and start over,” and allow the community to become engaged in how the district decides to use the Jefferson campus, which is set to close next spring to make room for a charter program operated by the Orange County School of the Arts.
“I would not rule out litigation,” Loy said in an interview Wednesday.
He said that the district should promote equal educational opportunity for all students, and not convert a public school campus to a “private school run at public expense.”
Oceanside Superintendent Duane Coleman said a meeting is planned on Friday in San Diego with Loy and OCSA founder Ralph Opacic, to address the ACLU’s concerns. “Of course, we take this seriously,” Coleman said.
Last month, the school board unanimously approved the Orange County charter school’s petition to move into the Jefferson campus, saying that declining enrollment at the middle school had forced the district to look at other options for the site. Many Jefferson parents and teachers opposed the switch, saying they were worried about how the plan might affect district students.
The Santa Ana-based Orange County School of the Arts approached the district last spring about opening a branch of its popular performing-arts charter school for seventh- through- 12th graders. Under the plan approved by the district board, Oceanside Unified will operate a kindergarten-through sixth grade arts magnet school at Jefferson, alongside the Orange County School of the Arts program for older students. Nearby Laurel and Mission elementary schools would be expanded to kindergarten- through eighth-grade campuses in order to absorb students displaced by the shift.
If students want to attend the charter school, they’d have to maintain a 2.0 grade-point average and pass an The ACLU is investigating whether the Oceanside Unified School District unlawfully approved a charter school application. | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:
