After 23 years of sharing a campus with Tierra Linda Middle School (TL), Charter Learning Center (CLC) will have its own campus.
Charter is relocating due to the recent addition of Mariposa Upper Elementary School to the school grounds. It will move into newly constructed buildings, and Tierra Linda and Mariposa will expand into the current Charter campus.
“To accommodate the bridge school, Mariposa, the San Carlos School District needs to reclaim the space that CLC has been in for 23 years,” said Jessica Rosenberg, a Charter parent. “After numerous discussions and having considered many other options, the San Carlos School District decided to develop the land above the current CLC/TL campus to build a new facility for CLC.”
In order for CLC to move, Edison Montessori, the preschool that was previously located in the portables above the TL/Charter campus, was forced to move out. Charter currently occupies the portables in which Montessori was located.
Charter teacher Inga Davis said, “In order to fit us up there, they’ve been spending two years flattening the area and they’ve installed seven units.”
The new structures are prefabricated ones made out of recycled shipping containers and will hold about three classrooms each. They are being built on softball fields that were above TL/CLC.
The staff and students of CLC are excited about the new facilities because they will provide variation from their previous classrooms.
“We’re looking forward to it because it’s been something we’ve been anticipating for a couple of years. It will be nice to get this piece of this transition done,” Davis said.
The relocation of Charter will give all three schools a less crowded learning environment.
“We are happy to work with the SCSD to make sure that all kids in San Carlos schools get the space they need for optimal learning, and that Mariposa can finally unify into the community they have been anticipating,” Rosenberg said.
However, Charter students are also reluctant to relocate because it means they will have less contact with the students of TL. Sharing a campus allowed students to form friendships with kids from the other school.
“Sharing a campus with TL is fun personally because I have friends there who I get to see during lunch,” Julia Ehrlich, an eighth-grader at Charter, said.
When sharing a campus, they used the same facilities on corresponding schedules.
“Even though the classes were in separate wings, there were many parts of the campus shared between the two schools,” said Aidan Truel, a Charter graduate. “We both used the library, the locker rooms, the gym, and the fields.”
However, once Charter leaves the campus, those students will no longer have access to the playground, library, or field of the TL campus.
Despite the difficulties of moving, Charter students and teachers strive to maintain optimism towards the matter.
“While moving is always challenging, were all trying to take a very positive attitude,” Davis said.
