Wildomar Parents Propose New Charter School

A Wildomar couple filed a petition with the Lake Elsinore Unified School District on April 15 to open a new charter school.

If the district approves their petition, Jeff and Aurien Jefferies, who are expecting their fourth child, plan to open Global Citizens Academy in August 2013 in Wildomar. The K-6 school would accept 164 students in the first year. The couple has already received 135 intent to enroll letters from parents with children located in LEUSD, Menifee Union School District and Temecula Valley Unified School District, Jeff Jefferies said.

“Global Citizens Academy would be at a great location and can be a part of the whole community,” he said. “All of those who have found out about us are excited.”

Global Citizens Academy would be located at the current site of Mercury Online Academy’s Learning Center, which is located at 34862 Monte Vista Dr. in Wildomar. Since January, the Jefferies’ 5- and 7-year-old sons have attended the charter school, which offers online and classroom instruction. A week after they enrolled their sons, however, Aurien Jefferies said they learned the school was closing its Learning Center in Wildomar.

“The staff that was already there—they were so supportive,” said Aurien Jefferies, a former K-12 teacher who is now in law school. “We just said, ‘Hey, maybe we can keep you guys alive.’ It will be under our name and maybe a slightly different mission and vision, but we can keep it alive.”

Currently, the school has 130 students, half who attend online-only and half who attend the learning center, said Tammy Kirkpatrick, the head of the school. There are five teachers who work at the learning center with K-6 students, and all five teachers are onboard to teach with Global Citizens Academy, she added.

“I am a dedicated supporter of the charter school movement and I am thrilled that these Mercury students may have the opportunity to be a part of the launch of Global Citizens Academy,” Kirkpatrick said.

Prior to enrolling at Mercury Online Academy, the Jefferies’ sons attended Ronald Reagan Elementary School in Wildomar.

“We were getting a little disappointed, a little jaded, with the lack of what was being offered,” Aurien Jefferies said. “It was just the bare, bare minimum.”

Aurien Jefferies said she and her husband had to enroll their eldest son in various activities outside of school to supplement his education.

“Having a child involved in lessons and all those things are great, but they take time away from family time,” she said. “It’s nice to have those things at school.”

The Jefferies withdrew their eldest son from Ronald Reagan Elementary School in October and Aurien Jefferies began homeschooling him. After she discovered she was pregnant a few months later, however, Aurien Jefferies decided to look for a new school for both her sons. That’s when the Jefferies discovered Mercury Online Academy. Aurien Jefferies liked that the school offered smaller class sizes, gave their students access to the latest technology and incorporated arts in instruction.

“I think this is an age where we want everything they’re learning to be exciting to them because we want them to learn that learning is fun,” she said.

Global Citizens Academy would also offer smaller class sizes and provide its students with the latest technology, Aurien Jefferies said. In addition, the school would offer art, music and foreign language programs.

“We call it Global Citizens Academy because we want to teach the children they’re not just citizens of their small town,” Aurien Jefferies said. “We want them to be prepared to participate in the world and be able to talk to people from different countries and backgrounds.”

A public hearing to consider the proposed charter school has not yet been scheduled. LEUSD spokesman Mark Dennis said he couldn’t confirm a hearing date, but the next regular meeting of the district’s governing board is scheduled for May 9.

“It’s not often that we receive a charter petition,” Dennis said. “A charter school petition does have a lot of work on the petitioner’s side, and on the district’s side, we’re here to make sure that it’s a viable school proposal so the petition can go forward or not based on the documentation and the confidence that all the capabilities are in place to make it happen, and to make it happen in a competent and an effective way, so it’s not going to fail and get into trouble once it’s set up.”

Dennis said there are two charter schools operating within LEUSD boundaries that the district has sponsored: Sycamore Academy of Science and Cultural Arts, a public charter school in Wildomar serving K-6 students, and Southern California Online Academy, an online school serving K-12 students in Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, San Diego and Imperial counties.

The Jefferies believe parents need more school options.

“I think there’s a need for it and I’m really hopeful that [the district] sees the need,” Aurien Jefferies said.