Parents Protest Sharing Campus with a New Charter School

Parents at  gathered in protest before and after school Friday, unhappy with a decision that could have their campus sharing their space with an incoming charter school in September.

 Superintendent Joseph Farley attended a PTA meeting Tuesday at Barcelona Hills, where he announced that its Mission Viejo campus would also be the site of the Oxford Preparatory Academy's elementary program, several parents who attended the meeting reported.

However, Sue Roche, executive director for Oxford, said Friday that Barcelona Hills is just one option, and earlier in the day, the district had offered yet another option. She declined to say where.

“Nothing is set in stone. Nothing is officially done,” Roche said. “We are very much looking at getting closure on this very soon. The sooner, the better.”

When asked why CUSD and Oxford have different takes on the charter school's future location, district spokesman Marcus Walton said, "State law mandates, and subsequent case law expands, a charter school’s right to school district facilities. State law mandates that the district offer the charter facilities. An offer to share facilities at Barcelona Hills is the best decision that can be made."

Last month, the Capistrano’s  Oxford Preparatory Academy’s request to open a charter school in the district. It operates a campus with 876 students in Chino. Its South Orange County campus is scheduled to serve 528 students in kindergarten through eighth grades and another 100 through independent study. A charter school is a public school but is freed from many of the legal requirements of regular public schools.

In an ideal world, Oxford would have a campus all to itself and be able to have all K-8 students together, Roche said. However, there are many examples of charters smoothly sharing space with regular public schools throughout the state.

Roche said so many parents have inquired about the school that officials may have to conduct lotteries for the various classes. Interest is pouring in from all over Capistrano Unified.

Barcelona Hills is the district’s northernmost elementary, northeast of Alicia Parkway and Trabuco Road. Walton said putting Oxford there is the the "most fiscally prudent decision for the district at this time."

Kathy Arnoldo, president of the Barcelona Hills PTA, said she got a call Monday night that Farley would be attending the PTA’s regularly scheduled meeting the next day. He first met with the principal and teachers, then spoke to the parents.

“We knew nothing until he walked through the door,” Arnoldo said. “Our community doesn’t even know about this. … We do have parents [at Barcelona Hills] who applied there who were also in shock. They didn’t hear it from their school.”

So parents decided to take to the sidewalks for drop-off and pickup, carrying signs that said, “We love Barcelona the way it is” and “Keep Barcelona whole.” Cars honked their horns in support.

“We’re just trying to preserve what we’ve had here for 34 years,” Arnoldo said. Barcelona Hills won a National Blue Ribbon in 1997 and was named a California Distinguished School in 2010. The school is known for its close-knit atmosphere, parents said.

Katie Davies, a mom of three daughters at Barcelona Hills, is an alumnus herself, having attended the school from 1989-93. “To find out that we are going to be sharing the school, it was really heartbreaking to me,” she said.

The campus is small, Davies said. She worries that Oxford will use the west end where some portables sit. A memorial wall there honors a teacher’s son who died, and a nearby tree honors a Barcelona Hills student who died in 1992 when struck by a car while riding his bike. 

“These are the kind of things we think about. There are lots of memories here,” Davies said.

Parents are struggling to imagine what it would be like to have an additional 400 students on their campus. The 440 existing students already have five different, staggered start times. They fear the traffic and disharmony.

“They’re going to be in uniforms,” said mom Louise Gorrie, who has two sons at the school, in kindergarten at fifth grade. “My kids have been very successful here. As much as I think the charter is a good idea, not for our small campus. They need to be separate.”

The district first proposed to put the elementary Oxford kids at the former site of Foxborough Elementary in Aliso Viejo. That site is already being used by another charter, Journey School. The middle schoolers were pegged to share facilities at .

Parents from both the Aliso Viejo schools Oxford officials .

Oxford is asking for district facilities free of charge. Under Proposition 39, the district must provide facilities for the district, including furniture and access to labs and physical-education locker rooms. A report from the staffers to the school board last month said Oxford will cost the district $900,000 in lost revenue each year, $200,000 in maintenance and a one-time cost of $500,000 to get the school situated.

Linda Shepard, a parent at Barcelona Hills, said that with the district facing financial problems, it’s not fair that Oxford’s students will be getting a piece of a limited pie. “How do you create something out of nothing? The average student will get less so that children at Oxford can get more.”

Parents plan to attend the  Wednesday. Oxford is not on the agenda.