Charter Middle School Settles Into New Home

After several attempts to find a home, students at the San Fernando Valley’s first charter middle school recently settled into a former preschool with 6,000 square feet, ample outdoor space and a multipurpose room.

“We’re finally here,” said Jackie Elliot, founder and executive director of Community Charter Middle School at 1441 Celis St. “And we’re doing great.”

Finding a permanent site was challenging. Originally, the school was planned for the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley in Pacoima, but that was scrapped for more spacious quarters in a medical suite in Lake View Terrace.

In July, Elliot had to drop plans for that site after learning that the school would be housed in the same building as an adult mental health facility that treats criminal offenders.

After Elliot finally secured the Celis Street location last summer, she spent the weeks before the school’s opening searching for a temporary site while permits and remodeling were being completed.

The school opened Sept. 7 at its temporary home on the Cal State Northridge campus with 100 sixth-graders.

“Now we’re rolling right along in the great city of San Fernando,” said Elliot, a former Los Angeles teacher, administrator and health educator.

The school has been at its permanent location for a few weeks.

By 2001, it is expected to enroll 300 sixth- through eighth-graders.

In exchange for pledges of higher student achievement, charter schools operate outside most state and school district guidelines, and control their own finances and curriculum.

At Community Charter, the staff integrates reading and writing skills into science and social studies classes, and works with CSUN in identifying students who may have difficulties on standardized tests.

Drawing upon a number of studies on the needs of middle school students, Elliot said the staff will nurture the preteens and try to instill self-worth, and help them avoid such dangers as drugs, gangs and sexual promiscuity.