OJAI : Details Requested on Charter School Plan

Urged by parents to offer a public school alternative for local students, the Ojai school board has agreed to keep alive a proposal for what would be Ventura County’s first charter school.

Trustees gave former teacher Deanna Nakosteen up to six weeks to give them more details about her proposed Discovery Charter School--which would be publicly funded but free from the constraints of state education code.

The decision came at a Tuesday meeting packed with about 45 of Nakosteen’s supporters, many of them parents whose children attended a now-defunct private school run by Nakosteen.

Although parents praised Nakosteen’s teaching ability, Ojai school officials said they are concerned the proposed school fails to meet the requirements of the 1992 charter school law.

The law, drawn up in response to parent demands for more choice in the public schools, gives charter schools control over their own finances by allowing them to receive funding directly from the state.

But the law says only existing public schools or new, start-up schools may become charter schools: Private schools may not convert to charter status.

Ojai Supt. Andrew Smidt said Nakosteen’s proposed school may be just a conversion of her former private school--called Discovery Place--to charter status. The school folded in 1991.

Smidt also raised concerns about how Nakosteen’s school would serve disabled students.

But David Patterson, a state Department of Education consultant, said other charter schools are based on the educational methods used at private schools. The state would not consider Nakosteen’s proposal to violate the charter school law, he said.

Patterson said some charter schools pay the local district to allow disabled students to take part in the district’s special education programs.