Letter from WECS Founders

June 14, 2012

Dear Friends and Families of Willits Elementary Charter School,

We urgently need your presence next Tuesday, June 19th at 4:30 in the Willits High School cafeteria for the Willits Unified Board meeting.

Last week, the Willits Unified School District lawyer submitted a letter to the city to put a hold on our building permits being released. Schools typically are granted exemption from zoning laws. Their claim is that a charter school cannot exempt itself from zoning laws, only the sponsoring districts can make this claim. We were very surprised by this claim, as Willits Charter School has exempted itself twice in the past 14 years and many charters throughout the state have done the same. We need your support to urge the WUSD Board to grant this exemption. Their attorney is also citing another code that may delay the project for 30 days. We do not feel that this code is applicable to our situation (in large part because we are leasing this site temporarily, versus acquiring it). We do have an attorney who is an expert in charter school facility law who has been working with us and says our case is strong. In addition to her expertise, we must work together to show that a large number of families feel it is crucial that WECS open this fall and that we cannot accept further delays.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

The Founders of Willits Elementary Charter School