DISTRICT GIVES OK FOR ONLINE CHARTER SCHOOL APPROVAL COMES ON BOARD'S 3-2 VOTE.Byline: KAREN MAESHIROStaff Writer LANCASTER -- Overruling o·ver·rule tr.v. o·ver·ruled, o·ver·rul·ing, o·ver·rules 1. a. To disallow the action or arguments of, especially by virtue of higher authority: opposition from teachers, Antelope Valley Union High School District The Antelope Valley Union High School District (A.V.U.H.S.D.) is located in the Antelope Valley area of California, in northern Los Angeles County. The district includes eight public high schools, one trade school, and two continuation high schools in the cities of Palmdale trustees have approved an online charter school. The 3-2 vote came on the condition that a suitable memorandum of understanding A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is a legal document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action and may not imply a legal commitment. is developed that will detail how the school will be operated, trustees said. "If the MOU (Minutes Of Usage) A metric used to compute billing and/or statistics for telephone calls or other network use. does not hold up, then the board can vote to revoke the approval," said trustee Ira Simonds, who along with trustee Donita Winn, voted against the charter petition. The split vote came during a special meeting Wednesday, a week after a public hearing in which teachers voiced their opposition to the school. The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County Online High School is proposed by a firm affiliated with the University of Phoenix. The school is set to start in August. The school missed the district's November deadline to submit a charter petition, but the board in early May voted 3-2 to change the district's charter-school policy to allow consideration of late applications under "special circumstances special circumstances n. in criminal cases, particularly homicides, actions of the accused or the situation under which the crime was committed for which state statutes allow or require imposition of a more severe punishment. ." Trustee Al Beattie said the charter school will give certain students another educational option and that students will have to comply with all of the district's graduation requirements, including completing a senior project. "I think this is an opportunity to provide a choice for students in the valley that are currently not participating in the conventional school system," Beattie said. "There are a number of students who are in some form of home study, possibly supported by a charter school but not one overseen by our district." Had the district not approved the charter school, Beattie said, it would have been approved by another district with the potential of taking away Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley students. Simonds, a retired district teacher, said he voted against the school because he didn't feel it would provide a quality education. "Students need to have that one-on-one (teacher connection)," Simonds said. He also noted that the charter school was up against a state deadline Wednesday to qualify for advanced funding from the state. "We voted so they could get state funding," Simonds said. Winn said going to a regular high school, with its socialization socialization /so·cial·iza·tion/ (so?shal-i-za´shun) the process by which society integrates the individual and the individual learns to behave in socially acceptable ways. so·cial·i·za·tion n. and students working in groups, is part of a complete education. "There are things you get when you learn with other people," Winn said. "We need to be teaching kids morals and ethics. How do you do that online? I do not feel it's a full education process." karen.maeshiro@dailynews.com (661) 267-5744 |
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