The New School

SCHOOL IN FALLBROOK SHUTS DOWN FOR GOOD, RELOCATING EMPLOYEES, STUDENTS TO TEMECULA September 14, 2007 North County (San Diego, CA) Times 

TEMECULA - The board of directors of The New School, an embattled charter school that operated in downtown Fallbrook for three years but failed to locate a permanent site, voted Friday morning to disband the institution and surrender its charter.

The meeting was held at the Innovation Centre, a Julian Charter School site in Temecula where many of the 100 children who previously attended The New School are now enrolled, according to officials.

"We had one of the highest-scoring schools in the state, but we had trouble finding a facility," said Sue Miller Hurst, former director of The New School and the new director of the Innovation Centre.

Jennifer Cauzza, director of the Julian Charter School, said this week that three former New School teachers have been hired at the Temecula site to continue teaching students who transferred from the defunct Fallbrook campus.

Cauzza said about 50 students had transferred as of this week.

Complications with the county Department of Planning and Land Use also contributed to the school's demise, officials said.

In a complicated series of events, The New School was forced to leave its rented space in a building on the northwest corner of Elder Street and Main Avenue in June, and could not find another suitable location in the area.

Last year, the county notified the school that it would need a major-use permit to continue operating in an old house at 127 E. Elder, and while the school maintained that it was a public institution and did not require such a permit, county officials would not relent, said Miller Hurst.

County officials said The New School needed a major-use permit as a school of more than 60 students…