This updated version of the story includes information provided by LAUSD about the vote and Gabriella's agreement with the district.
After much debate, LAUSD trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the charter of Echo Park's Gabriella Charter School for five more years.
The dance and performance oriented K-8 campus currently occupies 18 classrooms, a dance studio and office space on the campus of Logan Street Elementary School in Echo Park.
According to an LAUSD spokesman, a separate Facilities Use Agreement was similarly renewed--barring any mutually-agreeable changes.
Founded in 2005, Gabriella Charter School boasts an API of 894 and is seen as a feeder school for Downtown's Ramon Cortines High School for the Performing Arts.
Simultaneously, Logan Street Elementary has seen its service expand from K-5 to K-8 grades over the last year.
It has also instituted an innovative bilingual curriculum and seen API scores improve under principal Luis Ochoa, named Echo Park-Silver Lake Patch's 2011 Person of the Year.
Parents of children attending both schools attended the board meeting Tuesday to speak passionately.
Logan parents and other supporters worried that Gabriella's continued growth puts Logan's future at stake.
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy's office has also been charged with exploring options to better accommodate both programs into the future.
At the board meeting Tuesday, Deasy said he would work to find additional space for Gabriella, so that Logan could continue to grow.
Deasy also called Gabriella a "model" and noted that we want to be sure that the students at Gabriella are not "compromised, but we don't want to limit Logan's growth."
He also noted that smaller charters are most likely to be successful in colocations with LAUSD schools under Proposition 39.
Gabriella's charter predates Prop 39 but does raise some of the same issues other local schools face in colocations.
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