Lake Don Pedro’s Save Our Schools committee had some bad news and some good news for local residents at a meeting last month.

The bad news: Don Pedro High is likely to be closed at the end of this school year.

The good news: The SOS has launched an ambitious plan to bring the school back to life, only bigger and better, by creating a charter school program.

The charter school could bring both Don Pedro High School and Don Pedro Elementary School under local control for the first time in the area’s history.

SOS chairman Dwight Mueller told the several dozen residents who gathered for the February 20 meeting that the charter school would have many benefits: It would give local parents, rather than far-distant school boards, control over how their children are educated.

It would help ensure that local tax dollars are spent locally and more efficiently.

And most importantly, it would eliminate boundary battles that now prevent Mariposa County students from attending Don Pedro High and bar Tuolumne County children from attending Don Pedro Elementary.

Mueller said the SOS committee is working with an attorney who specializes in charter schools.

The SOS group plans to launch the new charter, dubbed Golden Lakes Charter School, in time for the start of the new school year this September.

“It is all very doable, very quickly,” Mueller told the audience. “Our goal is to make the transition as quickly as possible.”

He said both of the neighboring school districts in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties, which now govern DPHS and LDPE respectively, have indicated they will help the SOS group put together a charter school for the Don Pedro area.

Mueller said once the charter school is up and running, it won’t cost residents any more to operate than they currently pay in taxes.

However, because there are some initial start-up costs for legal and other expenses to set up the charter, the SOS group is trying to raise about $23,000.

There’s no chance that the current school districts will be able to help with those expenses, according to Mueller. “Neither district has any money,” he said. “So this whole transition has to be financially neutral for them. Going to the districts and asking for money (to pay the expenses of creating the charter school) … it ain’t gonna happen.”

Some of the costs can be offset by people volunteering their services, he said. “The more work we do, the less it’s going to cost this community.”

Residents may call Mueller at 852-0232 to volunteer to help with fund-raising or other tasks that need to be accomplished.

Local Realtor Harry Alfier, another member of the SOS committee, applauded the charter school plan. “If a community doesn’t have viable schools … it’s really not a community,” he said.

Alfier told the audience that real estate agents now must disclose to potential buyers that students living in some local areas must ride a bus 3 hours a day over treacherous roads to get to and from school. That is often a deal-killer.

Mueller pointed out that the viability of our schools affects everyone in the area, whether or not they have children. If the local schools close, he said, property values will plummet. “People will be walking away from their homes to start over someplace else, and that will kill Don Pedro,” he said.

Other SOS committee members outlined plans for fund raisers, such as a golf tournament, and proposals to seek corporate sponsorships from companies that do business in the area, such as PG&E and the propane companies.

Tax-deductible contributions may be made to Golden Lakes Charter School, PO Box 34, La Grange 95352.

The SOS committee is planning another meeting at Don Pedro High School on Friday, March 12, at 5 pm, where several charter school experts will be on hand to answer residents’ questions. There will be free food and beverages (donations accepted).

Mueller urged as many people as possible to attend the meeting, and to bring their neighbors.

“There are going to be some big pitfalls, but there isn’t one of them that can’t be overcome,” he said.