We are happy to announce that VUSD has let us know that they intend to enter
into long-term lease agreement with The Academies CMO for the former Union School site.
The school site sits on over six acres of land and includes ample office space, a parking lot and separate circle drive for pick-up and drop-off, several basketball courts, mature trees, and more. We are so excited about Blue Oak's new home!
The facility currently houses the District's dependent charter school, Charter Alternatives Academy, which will be relocated at the end of this academic year. The campus is located at the corner of Avenue 280 and Road 148, 28050 Rd 148, Visalia, CA 93292.
Honoring their duty to provide charter school students equal access to public school facilities, VUSD has agreed to lease their Union School facility as well as to continue to lease the current SVA facility to The Academies. Both the VUSD and The Academies CMO Boards have come to agree on these sites for our schools. The Academies and VUSD staffs will be working on finalizing contracts in the coming weeks. We will make another announcement when the contracts have been fully executed.
Proposition 39 (2000) amended California Education Code (EC) Section 47614, with the intent that public school facilities should be shared fairly among all public school pupils, including those in charter schools.
Prop. 39 requires school districts to make "reasonably equivalent" facilities available to charter schools upon request. The charter school facilities must be:
- Contiguous (located together, not spread across campus or multiple sites)
- Similarly furnished and equipped
- Located near the area in which the charter wishes to locate
School districts are allowed to charge charter schools for use of district facilities under Prop. 39. The law provides two alternatives for the district to charge charter schools annually for the use of facilities: a pro rata share charge or an oversight fee.