By Jeremy Ogul | Editor

Magnolia Science Academy — which serves students from La Mesa, San Diego and other East County communities — is in an awkward position.

The public charter school got a nod of approval last fall when the San Diego Unified School District board voted to renew the charter through 2020.

But just a few months later, school district trustees voted to sell the land and buildings from which Magnolia has operated for the past decade. The sale of the 8.76 acres on Lake Atlin Avenue, just north of the La Mesa city limits, generated nearly $6 million for the district.

The buyer was Preface, an Orange County-based residential developer. In community meetings, Preface has announced plans to build single-family homes on the lot.

In an interview, Magnolia Public Schools CEO Caprice Young sounded optimistic that the school and a new housing development could coexist.

“[Preface] promised us that we could buy the portion of the site that we’re on,” Young said. “We don’t really need the whole site.”

The school campus occupies only about 3.5 acres; the rest of the property has remained vacant since the neighborhood first began to develop in the 1950s. Magnolia uses the vacant portion for archery practice and other non-essential activities.

Representatives of Preface, however, are pushing ahead with plans to build 50 single-family detached homes on the site. The development map they have circulated to neighbors in the area shows homes occupying the entire property, suggesting that the school will eventually have to be demolished.

Ted Shaw, a San Diego land use consultant who is working for the developer, confirmed that Preface has discussed some kind of deal with Magnolia Public Schools but stressed that no agreement has been reached.

“They are not looking to kick the school out, but at the same time they purchased the land to do a development,” Shaw said.

He noted that Magnolia had the opportunity to buy the entire property before the sale was opened to the public.

Young said a purchase of that size was not possible at the time the district offered it.

“In 30 days the only financing that we could put together was just too expensive for us,” Young said. “We’re in a different financial position than we were then, and more time has elapsed. We could actually buy the whole site right now. Unfortunately we couldn’t then.”

Preface plans to apply for development permits from the city within the next month. The application will be tailored to fit within the existing zoning; it would not require any rezoning or community plan amendment. It should take six months to a year for Preface to secure all the necessary permits and Planning Commission approval, Shaw said.

As part of the purchase agreement, the school district required Preface to honor Magnolia’s lease through June 30, 2016. If Preface terminates the lease after that point, the school district would be required by law to provide another space for Magnolia, but there is no guarantee it would be in San Carlos.

“It’s much harder to find facilities in San Diego than almost anywhere,” Young said. “If we were to be forced to leave this site, it would be unlikely that we would be able to find another facility nearby.”

Ursula Kroemer, a spokesperson for the school district, said the district has not yet received a request from Magnolia for new space in the 2016-2017 school year but is anticipating it.

The school serves almost 400 students in grades six through eight. About two-thirds of the students are white, 28 percent are Hispanic and the remaining 5 percent are African-American or Asian American. Approximately 21 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Many students come from other neighborhoods to attend Magnolia.

Some parents, such as Parent Task Force Chair Yoli Thompson, send their children from as far as Rancho San Diego. Thompson said as many as half of the students come from other communities, including La Mesa, Spring Valley, El Cajon, Lakeside and Santee.

Thompson said she chose Magnolia for her daughter because of the small class sizes, strong academic performance and the numerous programs and activities that were not available at other schools. In particular, Thompson’s daughter was attracted by Magnolia’s foreign language offerings. This year the school offers Spanish, French and Turkish classes. Earlier, it offered Japanese classes.

While some parents are concerned about a possible move to another location in 2016, they are at least secure in the knowledge that the school’s charter has been renewed through 2020.

“At this point we know that the school is well established,” Thompson said.

John Pilch, who is active in several San Carlos neighborhood groups, said nearby residents have been relatively supportive of the development plans they’ve seen at community meetings so far.

“They like it,” Pilch said. “The usual concerns about traffic were expressed, but aside from that all the parking’s going to be inside [the boundaries of the property]. The streets won’t be impacted like they are now.”

Pilch said he has not heard opposition from residents on Lake Arrowhead Drive, whose houses overlook the property.

“They’d prefer to have a view of single-family residences rather than this undeveloped, unkempt, decomposed granite expanse that’s below them,” he said. “The city school district can say what they want, but they certainly haven’t spent the money that they should have spent to keep this thing in good shape.”

—Write to Jeremy Ogul at [email protected].