Parents at the Catskill Avenue Elementary School in Carson, a suburb of Los Angeles, are fighting to prevent a charter school from crowding into their fully utilized school.
State law requires districts to provide free space for charters, even in schools and communities that don’t want them.
“On a sunny afternoon in early April, in the working-class Los Angeles suburb of Carson, well over a hundred students, parents, teachers and community members gathered with a mission: to extol the virtues of Catskill Avenue Elementary School. But it wasn’t entirely a feel-good gathering. They were sounding an alarm that the Catskill campus was slated to share its space with GANAS Academy Charter School in the fall of 2019.
“Days after the rally, teachers and parents, backed by the United Teachers Los Angeles union, petitioned the Carson City Council to keep GANAS out of Catskill. Last Friday the council voted 3-0, with the mayor and one member absent, to support Catskill. The council’s resolution, which is symbolic and non-binding, will be sent to representatives of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which had approved GANAS’ charter.
“The founder and CEO of GANAS Academy, Sakshi Jain, has until Wednesday, May 1, to decide whether to accept the LAUSD offer to co-locate at Catskill. A LAUSD spokesperson said, in an email, that final offers of co-location sites are legally binding, suggesting the district would not offer GANAS another site if Catskill is rejected.
“Critics say GANAS is an example of the problems of charter schools in California: lack of oversight and transparency, and the tendency for districts and the state to greenlight charter schools whether or not there’s a clear need for them. In effect they say GANAS is a solution in search of a problem. And in search of a community. Before Carson’s Catskill Elementary was chosen, GANAS had plans to locate in nearby Wilmington, and used Wilmington’s demographic data in its petition to LAUSD.
“Phylis Hoffman, who teaches second grade at Harry Bridges Span School in Wilmington, called into question why Jain picked Wilmington for her school.
“The [GANAS] petition didn’t say where in Wilmington the school would be located, and the academic mission statement seemed very boilerplate and vague. And Jain has no California teaching credential. She appears to be a carpetbagger….”
”Elizabeth Untalan, who teaches fifth grade at Catskill, said that every room in the school is being used, including three computer labs, a counseling room, a science lab and a parent center. However, California’s Proposition 39, passed by voters in 2000, requires school districts to offer equitable and adequate unused public space to area charter schools. The key word is “unused,” and if a space is empty for part of the day, it is potentially eligible for a charter school to take it over.”
If the charter decides to move into the school, it will lose its computer labs, its counseling room, its science lab, and its parent center.
Someone, please remind me why stuffing a charter into a public school is a good idea.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is like a bunch of bullies moving into a neighborhood and trashing the neighborhood.
Charter Schools are mostly made up of BULLIES and those who run those Charter Schools don’t give a rip about anyone except their pocketbooks.
Who wins from public debate? Liars, bullies and trolls
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/03/death-of-debate-jordan-peterson-slavoj-zizek-alexandria-ocasio-cortez
The key word is “unused,” and if a space is empty for part of the day, it is potentially eligible for a charter school to take it over.”
If the charter decides to move into the school, it will lose its computer labs, its counseling room, its science lab, and its parent center.
This is an invasion by those who feel entitled to takeover public property without having paid a penny for it. The squatters are also forever whining about being underfunded. The Waltons pay Bellwether Education Partners to produce the propaganda behind those claims, all the while spending their billions on charter schools, including facilities.
Ignoring the voice of the people can be very dangerous. Just asked the 40k who were beheaded during the French Revolution (including the French King and his Queen) and King George of the British Empire who lost thirteen of his colonies in North America.
Oh, sorry (not really), we can’t ask them because that was back in the 18th century and even the ones that didn’t die during those two revolutions can’t be asked anything. They are all dead.
But those who are in power often refuse to learn from history because they are so arrogant and corrupted by the power they buy with their wealth.
The lessons from history are there to learn from. Woe be to those in power that ignore those lessons.
I wonder if it is possible to build a high-tech guillotine that uses a laser instead of a blade. That way, the future executioner of the future revolution that is already simmering will not have to stop to sharpen the metal blades.
It’s all well and good to call charters interlopers and bullies, but what is a flawed law like this Prop 39 but a gift-wrapped invitation to do exactly that? This sort of travesty has apparently been going on for nearly 2 decades. I couldn’t find info on total # of CA charters co located in neighborhood schools, but I did find as of Fall 2018 there were 103 such charters in LA alone, so Catskill Elementary’s problem is hardly unique.
What the heck, CA voters? Get a spine!
We need help in Santa Clara County, CA. The board refuses to meet with concerned true public school parents, as our representative is 100% pro-charter, and it seems a large portion of the board is as well. They provided the charter we are dealing with and refuses to help. We know the laws are our problem, but the way we are being treated is inexcusable. No one seems to care that we want to save every single one of our top performing neighborhood schools — and other districts as we have learned more about how privatization is hurting public schools everywhere. Would love some help.
Frustrated parent, reach out to the Network for Public Education.