Memorial Academy of Learning and Technology plans to dissolve at the end of the 2009 school year, according to an e-mail sent by its governing board to school employees this week. The charter school has suffered staff turnover, low test scores and ideological division since it became an independent nonprofit in 2005. Next year, it will only offer 8th grade, said Memorial employee Alberto Castillo.
San Diego Unified School District board members voted Tuesday to locate a new public middle school on the Memorial site, which is shared with the King/Chavez Academy of Excellence. The move was applauded as “quick, thorough and to the point” by school counselor Marta Carrasco and other Memorial parents and employees. But the decision upset King/Chavez Academy of Excellence principal Adriana Diaz, who said “adding another school (to the campus) would be disastrous.”
An earlier proposal could have located the Millennial Tech Middle School magnet program at the Memorial site. The board also voted to place the magnet at the vacant Gompers High School campus for which it was originally planned.