Oasis Charter Public School in Salinas is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Founded on a constructivist approach to learning, the school will serve a total of 175 students in the 2026-2027 school year, beginning on Wednesday, Aug. 5, according to Executive Director Lauren Ricker.
“Oasis has a way of attracting non-traditional kids,” Ricker says. “Kids that fall through the cracks in traditional public schools either because the school is too big or they get bullied or they struggle in traditional public schools.”
About 75 percent of the students' families are socioeconomically disadvantaged and 54 percent of the students are Hispanic or Latino. Ricker uses a third of the school's budget on students with a diagnosed disability.
“I spend close to $1 million on 38 kids and provide the support that they need that's written into their individualized education program,” she adds.
Ricker has been the executive director of Oasis Charter Public School since January 2024, replacing the previous executive director, Annie Millar, but has been working in education for more than 25 years.
The school, located next to the Costco store in North Salinas, serves grade levels K-6, with a total staff of 38 including part-time staff, an educational specialist providing support for its special needs kids and a full-time counselor.
This year the school is up for rechartering, meaning it's undergoing an official performance review to determine if its charter will be renewed, falling under the Monterey County Office of Education.
“We are in the process of writing the renewal and writing a narrative of the growth we have had over the past year and our academics," Ricker says.
This “renewal” period comes after a series of challenges for the school, which last time it was up for charter renewal in 2021, faced questions about whether it was performing at an acceptable academic level. In the years before that charter was ultimately granted, the school community found itself reckoning with revelations about improprieties by its leadership. Its former executive director, Juanita Perea, was found to have violated state conflict-of-interest laws and faced a $12,000 state fine. Relationships between administrators and students’ families had devolved to the point of court hearings—Perea filed for a restraining order against Andrew Sandoval, then a parent of four students (and now a member of Salinas City Council).
Despite the school's past history, Ricker says the focus has come far beyond survival mode to expansion. She wants to swell the school's highest grade level from sixth to eighth grade and provide transportation services for students. The school currently provides early care starting at 7:30am and after care until 5:15pm.
Although the school has an online platform for homework, Ricker wants to keep the learning experience analog as much as possible.
Oasis Charter Public School will celebrate its 25th anniversary for families and the community at its parent resource fair, to be held on Saturday, Aug. 29 from 10am-1pm.