January 8, 2013: Woodland Elementary Academy (Yolo County) has received a grant "up to" $575,000 from the California Department of Education (CDE) uner the Public Schools Charter Grant program. The grant provides startup and initial operating capital.
Woodland Elementary Academy is a proposed K-8 charter that would be operated by the existing two-year-old Woodland Polytechnic Academy, a high school operating on the Yolo County Fairgrounds in Woodland. WoodlandPoly's petition for the Elementary Academy to be a public charter is currently being reviewed by the Yolo County Office of Education, which will then advise the Woodland Joint Unified School District board of directors, who will vote on the decision. The vote is expected the end of this month.
On November 9, 2012, the WJUSD voted no on Woodland Poly's petition for Woodland Elementary Academy based on three reasons: its founders lacked a good track record and the petition did not have enough signatures. Directors felt the "attempt to grow the high school with a K-8 elementary school" was "premature."
Earlier in November, the Woodland Daily Democrat's reporter Don Frances noted:
...Looking at the original Woodland Poly petition, however -- which trustees denied two years ago but which the county Board of Education later approved -- administrators say they see "no evidence" of AP courses, performing arts classes or other such programs as promised in the petition.One thing the district knows for certain is how many Woodland Poly students have left to re-enroll at Pioneer or Woodland High School: 45. Administrators claim those students, and their parents, have reported problems in Woodland Poly's classrooms including unprepared teachers and not enough textbooks....
The recommendation concludes that Woodland Poly's founders are "demonstrably unlikely" to meet the educational promises made in the K-8 petition...
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