Another Horizon Charter Location Set To Close At End Of Year

LINCOLN (CBS13) - A local charter school has announced plans to close another location, leaving students scrambling for a place to learn again.

It has been in the headlines before and Horizon Charter Schools is once again under fire from furious parents.

"Watching every move that they've made, I'm shocked, but I'm not really shocked," kindergarten parent Carol Repetti said on Tuesday night.

You may remember Horizon controversially closed its Rocklin school for grades 3 through 12 in October with little notice, citing safety concerns. Nearly 400 students were displaced.

Horizon said earlier this month it doesn't have enough cash for a new location.

Now, Horizon is closing its K-12 school in Lincoln at the end of December.

"What are we to do now with our families in the middle of a school year?" Carol asked.

Horizon is shutting down its Accelerated Learning Academy (ALA) programs.

Those hundreds of students displaced from the Rocklin school, including Carol's sixth-graders, were taking online courses. Now those will be cancelled too.

"Teachers and parents and everyone have been duped by the people in charge at Horizon," she said.

Carol, president of the PTO, worked closely with Horizon trying to find a new site after the Rocklin closure. She feels misled.

"I think it comes down to money and maybe some mismanagement of money," she said. "They were trying to find any excuse just to completely shut the program down."

CBS13 repeatedly asked to speak with someone at Horizon's administration building but were told by one woman point-blank that nobody there would talk to us.

In a news release, Horizon said, "After recent ALA community messages were delivered to the administration, it became clear that the program in its current form is largely unwelcome to the community upon whose support the program itself depends."

Parents are left with basically three options: they can home-school their children with Horizon's curriculum, find another charter school and likely face a waiting list, or send their kids back to public schools.

Horizon still has several other locations open.