Voices Morgan Hill charter school will stay put for the 2016-17 school year with some support from Morgan Hill Unified School District after the two parties agreed on a facilities settlement.
However, there are some caveats to the pact—which was unanimously ratified by the board of education at the May 17 meeting.
If Voices is to remain at Advent Lutheran Church, they must acquire a conditional use permit from the City of Morgan Hill to allow for two portable classrooms to be placed on the Murphy Avenue grounds.
If that’s not a possibility, MHUSD leaders—who agreed to pay $125,000 in a one-time, lump-sum payment to Voices out of their unrestricted general fund—must provide temporary facilities through Sept. 30, 2016. The district’s payment “shall assist Voices in subsidizing improvements at its current non-district location….or at an alternative facility location,” according to the “in-lieu agreement” paperwork.
The agreement also requires Voices to dismiss its complaint challenging MHUSD’s denial of facilities for the 2015-16 school year as well as waive all rights to facilities for a period of three years through the 2017-18 school year.
“Voices is pleased that we were able to come to an agreement with the district and that through the hard work of negotiating, a fair solution was reached,” said Frances Teso, Voices founding principal. “We feel like this solution is in the best interest of Voices’ students and families, and is also a benefit to the district.”
In enacting the agreement, MHUSD will “support Voices’ current application to obtain a conditional use permit and building permits from the City of Morgan Hill for the Advent Lutheran Site,” according to the May 17 agenda item listed under the consent calendar. The district will transfer its reservation of two portable buildings to Voices, which is responsible for all associated costs.
“It was a challenging negotiation, but one that I think worked out best for all parties,” Board President Bob Benevento said.
The six MHUSD board members approved the agreement along with the rest of the meeting’s consent agenda, with no discussion.
The two sides had been battling over facilities since Voices won its appeal with Santa Clara County’s Office of Education last summer to open a Morgan Hill school in fall 2015 and filed an initial Proposition 39 request with MHUSD.
District leaders denied Voices’ request and the charter school instead elected to lease out private facilities at Advent Lutheran Church.
However, charter officials submitted a new Prop 39 request and had been in negotiations with the district, which also angered Charter School of Morgan Hill faculty and parents by proposing to house Voices at the MHUSD-authorized charter school in the northern outskirts of town.
With that possibility on the table, CSMH principal Paige Cisewski was also part of the negotiations involving MHUSD and Voices.
“CSMH, Voices and MHUSD all worked together to reach an agreement around facilities,” Cisewski said. “Now that we have settled this issue, both CSMH and Voices can focus on the upcoming school year and serving our students.”
The school board denied the district’s request to offer split facilities for Voices at San Martin/Gwinn Environmental Science Academy and Barrett Elementary School. The board also steered district leadership away from proposing Voices share the same campus at SM/G since they both have dual immersion programs.
Under Prop 39, a local district must offer fair and equitable facilities to an incoming charter school as long as space is available and does not disrupt any of their existing programs.
