Looking to free up space at a campus, Pomona school officials are moving a charter school program to a middle school.
Starting in fall, students enrolled in the School of Extended Educational Opportunities, a charter school with homeschooling and flexible schedules for student-athletes from kindergarten through 12th grade, will begin to take courses at John Marshall Middle School.
The change will free up the Palomares Academy Of Health Sciences campus, where the charter is currently based. That will allow the Pomona Unified School District to use the surplus property as employee housing or possibly lease or sell it to a developer to bring in revenue, Superintendent Darren Knowles said.
“The cost of housing in California is a factor for our young teachers and our young classified employees,” Knowles said.
If the district were able to provide housing, that would be a boon for the community, he added.
Students enrolled in the charter school are not on campus full time, he said. Many of them meet with a teacher once or twice a week. Because Marshall has the lowest enrollment among district middle schools, it can house the program, he said.
The transition will take place over a two-year period, with the middle school and soccer programs being the first to move to Marshall.
The transition period will allow the district to slowly move programs to the school and give charter students time to identify any campus improvements that are needed, Knowles said.
Improvements and changes would have to be discussed by the school board, but there is funding for campus improvements through Measure UU, a $385 million bond passed in November.
The charter school also receives funding for upgrading facilities, which could offer a “benefit to both programs” as there will be times when both sets of students are sharing facilities, he said.
While Pomona Unified has seen an enrollment decline of about 2%, the charter program is growing, with 1,192 students enrolled, Knowles said.
