By Kyla Calvert
One of San Diego’s 49 charter schools will close its doors at the end of January. The San Diego Unified Board of Education is scheduled to approve that closure Tuesday.
It is the second time in less than a year leaders of one of the city’s charter schools has volunteered to close down.
Iftin University Prep High School in San Diego’s Chollas View neighborhood failed to meet accreditation requirements in May 2013, according to a letter on the school’s website and a representative of the accrediting agency, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
The school disbanded its senior class and was scheduled for another visit from accreditors on Jan. 9.
But in a letter to San Diego Unified’s charter school office, Iftin leaders said they made the decision to close the school in a December meeting because of “insufficient and declining enrollment of students at the school.”
According to that letter, 75 students still were enrolled at the campus when the decision to close was made. California’s public schools are funded largely on a per-pupil basis. Charter schools are state-funded public schools operated by organizations other than school districts. They have more flexibility than traditional public schools in curriculum, hiring and other areas.
San Diego Unified staff had been advising Iftin leaders on balancing the school’s budget, according to Susan Park, a program manager in the district’s charter school office.