A local charter school longing for a more suitable home for its students has found one, and will be ready to move in for the start of the 2017-18 school year.
Voices College-Bound Language Academies’ Morgan Hill school will take over the building at 610 Jarvis Drive vacated by Silicon Valley Flex Academy in July 2016. Up to this point, the Morgan Hill charter had been operating on a short-term lease agreement at Advent Lutheran Church on Murphy Avenue.
“We are excited about the move,” said Voices founder Frances Teso, who confirmed the news late last week. “Our parent leaders and Voices community worked really hard with the city staff, council and commission.”
The City of Morgan Hill’s Planning Commission voted unanimously June 13 to approve Voices’ Conditional Use Permit at the former Flex site. “Voices Morgan Hill will have the facility for the next three to four years, as we work to acquire a permanent site,” Teso said.
Teso sent out an email blast to her Voices families thanking those who “attended the nearly 4-hour-long (planning commission) meeting, showing their solidarity and support for Voices Morgan Hill.”
“Parents and students gave powerful testimonies about the impact Voices has had and the urgency for a new facility,” continued Teso, calling parents “relentless advocates for themselves and their community.”
Flex vacated the Jarvis Drive premises after shuttering its doors in July 2016 due to financial shortcomings. The unexpected closure sent families scrambling to find new schools for their children only weeks before the start of school.
Voices had been housed at the local church beginning in the 2015-16 school year since winning its authorization appeal with Santa Clara County’s Office of Education in the summer of 2015, after Morgan Hill Unified’s board of education rejected Voices’ petition.
Since then, Voices and MHUSD leaders have sparred over Proposition 39 accommodations with the charter school settling at Advent Lutheran on a temporary basis. 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. The two sides reached a facilities agreement last year that kept Voices at the church while they continued their search for a permanent facility.
“As we close out another successful school year and gear up for a productive summer of planning and preparing, I’m so energized by this accomplishment,” Teso said of being granted permission to occupy the former Flex site. “There’s no doubt about it: our community members are agents of change, and I’m honored to share this work with you.”
