Proposal for charter school shot down, 4-1, by trustees

The Conejo Valley Unified School District Board of Education has rejected a petition to convert Meadows Elementary into an independent charter school.

When the board voted to close Meadows earlier this year because of declining enrollment, parents began working on a way to keep their neighborhood school open.

As all charter schools do, MATES (Meadows Arts and Technology Elementary School) needs an authorizer—an outside body—to approve its creation. Now that the district has refused, parents will present a petition to the Ventura County Board of Education for possible approval.

Superintendent Mario Contini said that despite the fact that the petition is "an impressive document," there were several issues with it, including an inadequate education program and curriculum and unclear plans for Englishlanguage learners and special education students.

Speakers argued that the program is nearly identical to the current Meadows program.

"The education plan is not comprehensive enough?" said Marlo Hartsuyker, MATES cofounder and president of its governing board. "It mirrors Meadows' (plan), a Blue Ribbon school. . . . They must think Meadows is lacking too."

Dep. Superintendent Jeff Baarstad did say the school's budget was "reasonable" and had "no fatal flaws."

The board voted to reject the petition 41, with board member Mike Dunn voting against the group.

Nearly a dozen parents spoke in favor of MATES and a partnership with CVUSD. Many speakers accused the board of rejecting the proposal because they want Meadows, an attractive site, to be available to rent.

The MATES board maintains that, with or without CVUSD approval, if the charter school moves on, it will get to use the Meadows site. Proposition 39 confirms that if an elementary school converts to a charter, the district must allow the school to use the same site, according to the MATES board.

CVUSD staff said they aren't sure if that's true.

"We decided to close two schools with the expectations of reducing operational costs and to rent out (those sites)," Contini said. "We've had many, many expressions of interest. Suffice to say, it's not in the best interest for the district to provide the site. If Proposition 39 does hold true and we absolutely must, we will. If not, it's not in our best interest."

The district responded to the MATES governing board last week with their concerns. As the group began working on clarifications, the CVUSD board released a resolution stating its intent to reject the petition.