The Ventura County Board of Education voted to approve Bridges charter, a school formed by dissatisfied parents and teachers from the open classroom magnet at Conejo Elementary.

“This is a tremendous corner we have just turned,” said Jon Baker, co-petitioner of the Bridges charter. “Some of us are unaware that we still have a mountain to climb. But I’m fully confident that this group of teachers and parents will not let us fail.”

Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees voted against the charter in December and cited the group’s inadequate charter document. Gripes included incomplete explanations of the school’s home school and special education programs.

“I congratulate them on a successful charter petition,” said CVUSD Superintendent Mario Contini. “And we’ll do everything we can to help them and support them. We had what we thought were some strong issues with the petition—hopefully they will all be resolved.”

The county board approved the charter 4-1, with Marty Bates— who represents Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and the Ventura County portion of Westlake Village—voting against Bridges.

“CVUSD has indicated they are willing to expand the program,” Bates said. “I think CVUSD has done an outstanding job educating students in the Conejo Valley, and that’s proven every time we have test scores published. I believe if we keep letting all these little groups usurp authority, it will deteriorate the education (system) in Conejo Valley.”

Bates relied on testimony from CVUSD staff and former school board members Dorothy Beaubien and Dolores Didio claiming that Bridges was just duplicating the open classrooms magnet.

“The major purpose of a charter school is to offer a program that is qualitatively different from what is available in traditional public schools,” said Beaubien, who maintained the Bridges group simply wanted to move locations. “This is not even a legal charter. It doesn’t offer an educational experience that’s different. It’s a successful magnet in a district that is already struggling to give 21,000 students a quality education.

Didio agreed with Beaubien.

“This choice already exists in the open classroom magnet,” she said. “There’s no valid reason for not respecting the CVUSD board’s decision and authority. It would cost everybody in the community.”

Although financial impact isn’t supposed to be considered in the board’s decision, almost all of the CVUSD speakers, including Contini, Beaubien, Didio and Dep. Superintendent Jeff Baarstad, pointed out how the new school would pull money away from the district.

“If we lost 150 kids, that’s $750,000 in ongoing lost (per student government funds),” Baarstad said. “We’ve already been cut $25 million in ongoing funding over the last two years. And to provide a facility will cost between a $500,000 and $1 million.”

But in the end, the majority of the county board members couldn’t find any insurmountable issues with the charter’s petition.

“I think the concept of charters is inherently a good one, but they often come with unintended consequences,” said board member Mark Lisagor. “Our job is not to be concerned with the devastating cost. We are specifically not supposed to think about that.”

Board member Mary Louise Peterson agreed and “with a heavy heart” voted for the school. “I feel that (Bridges) could accelerate at a faster rate as a charter,” she said. “They have a sound educational program. They want the opportunity to be much more innovative.”

The charter school will open its doors in the fall, although it’s still unclear where those doors will be. The Bridges group wants it to be placed at University Elementary, but the CVUSD staff would like to keep that campus for a growing preschool and child care program.

CVUSD has identified the Horizon Hills campus as the future home of Bridges, although Baker said Bridges will continue “lobbying” for University.

The CVUSD board rejected the petition for the Conejo Valley’s first charter school, MATES (Meadows Arts and Technology Elementary School), a year ago. The school was later approved by the county.