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New Charter School Home Proves Elusive: BOARD CHOOSES LOTTERY TO PICK STUDENTS

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 09:02 CDT

By Sharon Noguchi, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

May 9--The board of Stanford Charter School has decided to hold a lottery for its planned elementary school, which it hopes will open in the Ravenswood City School District in August.

School officials just wish they knew where their campus will be located.

State law requires districts to offer a location to charter schools they approve. In April, the Ravenswood board offered space at Menlo Oaks School, where Stanford School Corp.'s East Palo Alto High School sits.

But there is barely enough space on that site for seven new portables to house classrooms -- and that would have meant no office space or playground, said Deborah Stipek, dean of the Stanford School of Education, which started Stanford Schools Corp. to run the charter school. Kindergartners would have been rubbing elbows with high school students, Stipek said.

So Stanford asked for another site. " 'We would just like space that is manageable," Stipek said. "We are not looking for the Taj Mahal."

Last month, the three trustees present at a Ravenswood board meeting each suggested different locations, finally asking the staff to look into a site on the Brentwood Oaks campus, which houses the Edison and Phoenix charter schools.

Board President Jacqueline Wallace Greene stood by the original offer at Menlo Oaks, and accused fellow trustees Todd Gaviglio and Marcelino Lopez of caving in to Stanford's wishes. "What we are saying is, the Ravenswood School District is a shopping mall," she worried. She added that it's not "up to individual charters to determine where they will be."

Stipek said later that Stanford has agreed to all the sites the district has offered -- except that the Menlo Oaks campus simply doesn't have room for adding elementary classrooms.

Whatever the Ravenswood staff recommends, the school board still must approve it.

Parents hoping to enroll their children in the charter are disappointed. "It's so unfair," said Kathy Washington, who wants to enroll her fifth-grade daughter in Stanford Charter. "I'm just trying to better my daughter's education."

While some Ravenswood officials may believe charters siphon funds and power from districts, Stanford Schools sees it differently. "We don't see this as just another charter school in East Palo Alto," Stipek said. "It's a strategy for bringing some of the resources at Stanford -- knowledge, students and faculty -- into Ravenswood, so that we can work side by side."

The lottery for 150 slots in kindergarten, first and sixth grades will be at 5 p.m. today at the Belle Haven Child Development Center, 410 Ivy Drive, Menlo Park. For information or to submit an application, telephone Stanford Schools at (650) 724-6895. Contact Sharon Noguchi at (650) 688-7576 or snoguchi@mercurynews.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: San Jose Mercury News

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