LAUSD Picks Ocean Charter School for Walgrove Elementary Campus

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced in a terse statement Saturday that  will be allowed to lease land on the Walgrove Elementary campus so that it can build a school there to serve its kindergarten through eighth grade students at a unified site.

Ocean Charter now has two campuses with their fourth- through eighth-grade students at Walgrove and their younger students at a rented facility on Culver Boulevard in Del Rey.

The statement reads:

Los Angeles Unified School District is pleased to announce that the following charter operator has been selected, pending approval by the LAUSD Board of Education, and successful negotiation of a lease agreement for the construction, financing, and operation of a charter school on a portion of the Walgrove Elementary School campus.

The announcement did not indicate when the board will vote on the recommendation. 

The decison follows months of meetings and heated debate among parents, advocates for both Ocean Charter and Green Dot School's Animo Venice Middle school – both of which were vying for the site – and neighbors who opposed any new school being built there.

Kristy Mack-Fett Ocean Charter's north campus director told Patch, "obviously, we're delighted." Mack-Fett said, "We're glad that the district put tis proces in place as an innovative solution to the facilities issues and we hope the district will contine to find innovative solutions to make facilites available for all their students."

Marco Petruzzi, CEO of Green Dot Schools, which was the other contender for the Walgrove site for its Animo Venice Middle School, told Patch, “you win some, you lose some.”

Petruzzi said he believed “the process was certainly transparent” although he does not yet “have any indication from the district on how they graded the proposals.” Petruzzi said he’d already sent his congratulations to Ocean Charter administrators.

Animo Venice Middle School will remain at Cowan Avenue Elementary in Westchester for next year, according to Petruzzi. Green Dot, he said, will “continue to work with distict” on finding a permanent home for the middle school, but will also look into private building options.

Ocean Charter will have to vacate the bungalows it is currently occupying on the Walgrove campus at the end of this school year. Mack-Fett said she assumes that there is "still a long process" ahead for the school before it can build on the Walgrove site. The school board has not announced when it will vote on the recommendation and there are environmental studies and other hurdles still for the school. 

Mack-Fett said Ocean Charter is "waiting on the district" to make them an offer of space for their students for next year under the requirements of Propostion 39, which requires the district to provide space to charter schools. She expects to get an offer for space by April 1, the tradtional deadline for such offers from the district. 

John Fischer, a parent and School Site Council president at Walgrove Elementary said, "It’s a tough scenario for folks in the area who are looking for a more traditional middle school.” Said Fischer, “I personally would be happier with no other school on the Walgrove campus.”