Alianza Charter School

Alianza was first established in 1981 as a Desegregation magnet school at 440 Arthur Road in Watsonville, California with the mission of having all students meet high academic standards and  the development of bilingualism and biliteracy. We thrived as an alternative educational program for students and their families in our district (especially the Rodriguez Street neighborhood)  until the end of the 1995/96 school year when our status as a desegregation magnet school ended. At that time we received a federal Title 7 grant to convert our school instructional program to a Two Way Bilingual Immersion Program, which continues today. In 1998, the voters of California were on their way to passing Proposition 227, and in order to preserve the Alianza Program, Principal Michael Jones and Teacher Judy Stobbe wrote the Alianza Charter which was approved that same year.  In 2003 the district decided to move Alianza to another site. This decision caused protest from the school community and unsuccessful legal action, the result of which was our move to our current location at 115 Casserly Road. The benefits of this move was that Alianza became a school of choice, able to serve students from around the Monterey Bay region. It also allowed us to become a K-8 program that year with the addition of our first group of seventh graders. We graduated our first eighth grade class in 2005. At present we serve approximately 660 students.