Plans for the downtown library school are slowly moving forward — even though it is unclear who will operate the school, which must be a charter because of state rules on earthquake safety.
(Confused? Read our explainer on how the library became a schoobrary, and why it must be a charter school instead of a school run directly by San Diego Unified.)
San Diego Unified Interim Superintendent William Kowba wrote in an e-mail Sunday to trustees that he will meet with school district staff to discuss what kind of facilities “a generic small high school would need.” The city, which is drafting a lease for the library space, now projects that construction could begin next July and the school could open by 2013, Kowba wrote.
But the idea is still frustrating to critics such as school board member John de Beck. De Beck responded to Kowba: “[W]hat it sounds like is you are planning a facility for an unknown school without using any input from the operators of the school. That may facilitate the construction, but it will complicate the operator’s use.”
He added, “I actually am surprised that many of our district charters are not up in arms about the fact that we are building something for a school that doesn’t exist, even as they have individual charter needs. This is San Diego City Politics at its worst.”
San Diego Unified and the city are meeting to discuss the schoobrary again next Wednesday.