Hearing on proposed charter school is postponed

A hearing scheduled for March 27 to determine whether a charter school will be placed on the Meadows Elementary campus was postponed until later this month.

According to an e-mail from Conejo Valley Unified School District Superintendent Mario Contini, the office of CVUSD attorney John Yeh called him the morning of March 26, the day before the hearing was scheduled.

"We were told that the judge needed additional time to review recently received documents," said Contini in the e-mail.

A new date hasn't yet been set but is expected to be sometime in April.

Meadows Arts and Technology Elementary School (MATES) was created by Meadows Elementary parents after their school was slated for closure.

The MATES board believes their school is considered a "conversion charter" because the program has been in place for years.

Therefore, according to Proposition 39, they say, they're entitled to remain at Meadows.

District officials interpret the law differently.

They believe the district is only obligated to provide a comparable facility, and they've offered Glenwood Elementary.

The MATES board filed a lawsuit against CVUSD shortly after that offer.

—Joann Groff