Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy, the Green Dot-run high school in South Los Angeles, is scrambling to keep its charter after the Los Angeles Unified School District voted to deny renewal. The move could force the roughly 1,000-student campus to shut down at the end of the school year unless an appeal breaks the school’s way. Green Dot has already taken that step, filing an appeal with the Los Angeles County Board of Education, which the operator says is set to hear the case next month.
The LAUSD decision followed a tense March meeting where board members voted 4-3 against granting Locke a new five-year charter. That narrow margin may carry enormous consequences: if the county board sides with the district, the school would have to close, according to the Los Angeles Times. District staff had urged denial after comparing Locke’s academic results with those at nearby traditional schools, the Times reported.
Locke and Green Dot counter with their own story line of long-haul improvement. A school presentation to the LAUSD board shows the graduation rate climbing from about 43% in 2008 to roughly 72% in 2025, and highlights strong year-over-year growth even as overall scores still trail state averages. The materials also spell out Locke’s demographics, including high levels of economic hardship, student mobility and special-education needs, and frame those realities as key context for evaluating performance. School leaders argue that those gains, coupled with vocal community backing, should carry weight in the county review.
Supporters and alumni have not taken the district’s move quietly. “It really transformed it,” said Michael McElveen, a Locke graduate who now works for Green Dot, in an interview with NBC Los Angeles. McElveen and other backers told reporters they see Locke as a neighborhood lifeline and called on county officials to reinstate the charter.
Why the district denied renewal
District staff told board members their analysis suggested some Locke students would likely have done better at nearby residential schools. That comparison proved convincing to a majority of trustees, who followed the staff recommendation to reject the renewal, the Los Angeles Times reported. Board members leaned heavily on absolute proficiency levels, even as Green Dot emphasized how quickly many students grow academically once they enroll at Locke.
What happens next
Green Dot has taken its case to the Los Angeles County Board of Education and says the county will consider the appeal next month, according to NBC Los Angeles. If county officials uphold LAUSD’s denial, Locke would be ordered to close. If the county reverses the call, the school could keep operating under its charter.
Community and students at stake
Green Dot’s filings stress that Locke serves one of the region’s highest-need high school communities and include a roster of local organizations and elected officials who supported renewal, according to the school presentation. That makes the county hearing a political barometer as well as an academic judgment for a campus Green Dot says it has spent 17 years rebuilding.
For now, all eyes shift to the county board’s meeting calendar. Parents, alumni and Green Dot officials say they will keep lobbying, while district leaders stand by the LAUSD review. The LAUSD Board of Education website posts the charter petition, staff reports and meeting records for anyone who wants to dig into the paper trail, which remains the official public record of the dispute.
