The settlement is a win for Oakland public school families
Oakland, CA – The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) announced today they have reached a settlement agreement in the 2016 lawsuit filed by CCSA against OUSD for noncompliance with Proposition 39. The OUSD Board voted to approve the settlement on Wednesday, September 23, 2020.
Under the settlement, OUSD will work collaboratively with CCSA and charters located within OUSD to provide a transparent Prop. 39 process that ensures equity and fairness for all Oakland students and is a win for OUSD families.
“We are pleased to have reached a fair and just agreement with Oakland Unified that ensures parents who want to enroll their child at a charter public school have equitable facilities because every child has the right to a high-quality education,” said CCSA President and CEO Myrna Castrejón. “We look forward to working with OUSD to ensure that all students receive equitable access to OUSD facilities as agreed to under this settlement.”
“I am pleased we have reached this agreement with CCSA,” said Board of Education President, Jody London. “I want to thank our staff and the staff at CCSA for their hard work in getting this deal done. We and our charter partners can now move on from this issue and refocus our energy on ensuring all of our students get the best education possible in both District-run and charter schools.”
California voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 39 in 2000 which requires public school facilities be shared fairly among public school students, including charter school students. School districts are required to make “reasonably equivalent” facilities available to charter schools located within the school district. CCSA has been working with OUSD concerning its lack of Prop. 39 compliance since 2014.
The settlement is the culmination of extensive work between the District and CCSA in regard to those issues. As a result of the settlement, OUSD will provide detailed, transparent and comprehensive information about District facilities and how it determines the facilities that it must offer to charter schools. Because of this charter schools can better anticipate the facilities they will receive and more easily confirm OUSD’s legal compliance to ensure they receive the share of classrooms, specialized teaching station and non-teaching station space that they are entitled to.
OUSD will also work collaboratively with charter schools to ensure proportional and equitable priority for scheduling and access.
As to custodial issues, the settlement provides that charter schools on co-locations can retain their own custodial if there is no shared indoor space. It outlines an official process for charter schools that use district custodial to raise issues with the services they are receiving. It also requires that custodial be included in the pro rata share instead of the prior separate calculation which resulted in charter schools paying a disproportionate amount for district custodial.
The settlement also provides assurance that charter schools occupying District facilities are given the same priority in scheduling and rescheduling as District events and programs in the event of a joint use agreement with the City, County or other local government entity.
In addition, the District agreed to minimize multi-site offers and to make those offers in a transparent manner supported by legally compliant findings. To that end, the District agreed to inform any charter school that is receiving a multi-site offer at least one week before the multi-site resolution is brought to the OUSD Governing Board and to meet with that charter school upon written request made in advance of March 1.
The District agreed to similar transparency around determination of charter school locations.
CCSA looks forward to successful implementation of the settlement agreement.