District to Discuss Bid for Charter School Status
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will hold a hearing Thursday to discuss the district’s bid to convert the Edison Language Academy into a charter school.
The district must apply to the California Department of Education for a waiver from rules limiting the creation of new charter schools to 100 a year, said Sue Gee, the district’s assistant superintendent for education services.
“They’ve already passed that limit and we want to get this approved before the fall semester,” Gee said.
Students at Edison Elementary are taught concurrently in English and Spanish. The school decided to apply for charter status after the passage of Proposition 227, which curtails bilingual education.
“It’s a very sought-out program,” she said. “Many of the students come from outside of the district. The charter allows them to continue their mission: to be a bilingual, biliterate language academy.”
If approved, the permit would make Edison the first charter school in the 16-school district.
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