LAICHS has disputed some of Monica Whalen's claims.
By David Fonseca, HP-MW Patch | http://bit.ly/GWYNPp
27 March 2012 :: The Los Angeles Unified School District has offered classroom space at Benjamin Franklin High School to Los Angeles International Charter High School (LAICHS), but the charter has yet to decide whether to accept the offer, said planning and development director Tony Torres.
"I can tell you that it is an okay offer," Torres said. "The classrooms would all be grouped together, which is something we would want."
As previously reported on Patch, LAICHS applied to operate in Franklin's empty classrooms through California Proposition 39 in November.
Among other provisions that allowed for the funding of public school building projects, Prop. 39 requires public school districts to take applications from charter schools to operate in open classroom space in their buildings.
Torres said LAICHS has until May 1 to accept the offer; the school is still undecided.
"We're not sure if the time is right for us," Torres said. "We'd also have a parent meeting before we made any decision."
On Monday, Franklin teacher and United Teachers Los Angeles representative Monica Whalen said LAICHS faculty and students would not be welcomed at the high school.
Whalen has authored a petition expressing the union's opposition to the possible co-location.
The petition, which had 253 signatures as of 4 p.m. on Monday, can be found here.
"We want to make them know they're not going to be welcome," Whalen said.
Whalen said the co-location of LAICHS students onto Franklin's campus would limit student access to gym and library facilities, burden staff with added administrative tasks and open the school to increased competition from the charter.
Torres disputed some of Whalen's claims. He said that LAICHS can only enroll 400 students and already had 250 students signed up.
"We are not a threat to them," Torres said.
He added that that Whalen's assertion that LAICHS' students would be a financial burden on Franklin were untrue.
"They're not just going to give us Franklin's facilities," Torres said. "We have to pay rent, we have to pay for janitorial services, we have to pay for cafeteria services. We have to pay for any of the costs associated with running a school."
Torres added that he feared that the language in Whalen's petition would create a hostile environment for students.
"We've been the quiet side in this negotiation," Torres said. "I found some of the comments in the petition interesting. We just don't want there to be any hostility toward our students."
Asked if she feared that her petition might create a hostile environment for charter students, Whalen said she did not wish violence on anybody.
"I don't want anything hostile to happen to the kids," Whalen said.
She added: "You have this group, they're coming to our campus and they are not welcome. They are forcing themselves on us."
PETITION: Friends of Franklin High School: Stop Colocation
●●smf: When I was the President of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council ASNC supported and encouraged Los Angeles International Charter High School in their move from a succession of storefronts into the then vacant Christian school property in Hermon – a small community in Northeast Los Angeles – space they continue to occupy. We gave LAICHS money where that was appropriate – good LA City taxpayers money. ASNC advocated before the board of education in LAICHS‘s behalf when they faced some fiscal problems and their charter was in jeopardy - because we supported the charter in our neighborhood. Because the concept of the small community-based charter school – not a chain-store charter management organization run school - which allows students and parents choice in the education of their/our children is a concept we support.
Now LAICHS wishes to move out the neighborhood they claimed to be supportive of and which was welcoming and supportive of them. – in an obvious move to cut costs – at the expense of Franklin High School.
So much for LAICHS’s commitment to the neighborhood.
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