Charter’s Kelsey Lane site moving ahead
“Look and you shall find” and “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” These were the primary themes of the Plumas Charter School board meeting Monday, April 24.
New Quincy school site
Plumas Charter School was previously gifted property on Kelsey Lane, located just northwest of the track at Quincy Junior-Senior High.
David Shirah helped the Marysville Charter Academy build its new school, and Plumas Charter is using Shirah as their building consultant as well. Plumas Charter is hoping to construct a building similar to that constructed for Marysville Academy.
Shirah has been meeting with Plumas County Environmental Health and Public Works departments to get a handle on what needs to be done to build a school on the Kelsey Lane site. So far, there are no major hurdles.
Primary concerns are a new well to supply water for the school, hooking up to sewage lines and having a safe place for students to be dropped off and picked up at school.
A soils survey has been done, but the school still needs to explore drainage problems.
Shirah and the charter school are hoping to schedule a “pre-application meeting” with the planning department and all interested county departments at one time to get definitive information on what the school needs to do to get a permit to build a school on Kelsey Lane.
Change of SELPA
Executive Director Taletha Washburn told the board, “I have something very exciting to tell you.”
After its second try, Plumas Charter School was accepted into the El Dorado Special Education Local Planning Area. The change will go into effect this July.
A SELPA is an association of schools within a geographical service area responsible for providing special education to students based on California and federal laws and regulations.
Plumas Charter has been part of the Plumas County SELPA. Plumas Charter is expecting to save administrative costs and gain stability from this change of local service area.
The El Dorado SELPA includes schools throughout California, including the Redding School for the Arts, which Plumas Charter is looking to partner with.
Plumas Charter tried to join the El Dorado SELPA before, but was not accepted. This time the school was better prepared and succeeded.
Indian Valley school sites
Plumas Charter’s Indian Valley Academy program will be split into three parts next year.
Junior high grades sixth through eighth will continue to meet in the same building in Greenville.
High school grades nine through 12 will take place in Taylorsville in a building rented from the Methodist Church.
Kindergarten through fifth grades will be doing mostly independent study requiring minimal support. Washburn said that the latter is what the parents were requesting anyway.
Current Quincy school site
The charter school has put the North Mill Creek Road site on the back burner due to the time and expense needed to do an environmental review prior to permitting.
Plumas Charter needs to be out of its current Pioneer School location at the end of the 2017-2018 school year.
Washburn reported that the charter school will have two fewer classrooms at their disposal at the Pioneer School site next year. Plumas Unified School District, which houses a kindergarten at the site, has notified the charter school that it requires additional space.
shouldn’t the locations be north EAST of the highschool track? northwest is all Agricultural land.