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LAUSD reports increase in charter school co-location approvals

Chase Niesner | February 25, 2014



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24thStSchoolOutside1

24th Street Elementary, a school recently approved for charter co-location

LA Unified has released a preliminary list of charter school co-location proposals, showing that the district is offering more traditional school sites for co-locations for 2014-15 than in either of the previous two school years.

According to Lorena Padilla-Melendez, director of Community Relations for LAUSD’s Facilities Services Division, 80 traditional school sites were recently approved as “legally sufficient” for potential charter co-locations, a slight increase over the two prior years, when the district approved 69 and 75 facility requests, respectively.

The preliminary list of co-location proposals is comprised of applications from new charter schools requesting facilities for the first time, existing charter schools requesting renewals of their current facilities and existing charter schools that might need more space to accommodate a growing student body.

The charter schools filed their requests in November. The approval process hinges on the charter’s projections of their average daily attendance and whether the district agrees with the estimate, according to Padilla-Melendez. A charter has until May 1 to accept the district’s offer of the co-location, and if accepted, the charter can occupy the allotted site within 10 working days of the first day of instruction, according to the Prop 39 regulatory timeline.

California voters approved Proposition 39 in 2000, amending the state education code so that school districts must provide “reasonably equivalent” facilities to charter school students who would otherwise attend district schools.

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