After rumors were confirmed that Magnolia charter company is vying to co-locate campus space at Holmes Middle School and Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences (VAAS), educators at the two schools are teaming up to fight back. 

“When we heard they were trying to co-locate, we got angry, and then we got organized,” says VAAS Chapter Chair Maribel Palafox. 

UTLA members at the two schools came together to come up with a game plan, even pulling ideas from Sunny Brae Elementary, which successfully fought off a campus co-location. 

They started off leafleting parents about the impact a charter co-location would have on their schools and got them signed up to take action. Parents have been making calls to the Magnolia board of directors and signing a petition to stop the proposed co-location before the May 1 deadline. 

A charter co-location would mean sharing space and resources, which Holmes Vice Chapter Chair Katie Fulton says are already spread thin.  

“Co-location would mean moving the robotics class to our already-crammed music building,” says Fulton. “With Prop. 28, we have extra arts funding, but no room to expand because we don’t have space.” 

Palafox says the proposed co-locations would mean losing nine classrooms, including space for the robotics program and their parent center. She wonders what else VAAS students might lose.

“We just got our theater program up and running and now I wonder if we will have room for it,” Palafox says.

Last Friday, they packed Magnolia’s board room in Little Tokyo and took over the Zoom call with 180 students, parents, and educators signed in. Fulton says the Magnolia board members felt their impact.  

“We could tell the charter board was flustered at how many people were there to send our message forcefully: This is the negative impact you would have on our school and we would like you to formally rescind the application.” 

The next Magnolia charter board meeting is scheduled for April 9. The Holmes and VAAS school communities are gearing up to pack the board room again and make the Magnolia charter company reconsider their plans. 

“Our community, our students, our faculty are on board and ready to keep fighting this,” Palafox says.