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History

In  September  2004,  a  small  group  of  entrepreneurs  and  educators  developed  an independent charter school in the Los Angeles Unified School District called Ivy Academia Entrepreneurial Charter School.  The goal was to provide a high-quality education with an entrepreneurial focus.  The school began with 280 students on two sites, Pre-K – 1 was at Fallbrook and Grades 2-6 started the year in a church before it moved two months later to the De Soto site. The plan was to add one class per year through high school. In 2005, grade 7 was added to De Soto.  In 2006, grade 8 was added to De Soto. In 2007, grade 9 was added to De Soto. Also in 2007, Pre-K, K and grade 1 moved from Fallbrook to Temple Judea, and grades 2 and 3 moved from De Soto to Sunny Brae Elementary School,  our  first  “co-location”  school  with  LAUSD.  A  gymnasium  and  additional classrooms were added to the De Soto site.  In 2008, grades 8, 9 and 10 moved from De Soto to the Chatsworth High School site. In 2009, the high school became a 9-12 school and a science laboratory was added.  

In 2011, Pre-K was closed in hopes of reopening in the future, grades K and 1 moved from Temple Judea to Sunny Brae, Grade 3 moved to Stanley Mosk Elementary School, our second “co-location” school with LAUSD, grades 4-8 remained at De Soto and grades 9-12 remained at Chatsworth. The Ivy Leadership Team was restructured and a new Board of Directors was put in place.  In 2012, grades K-2 remained at Sunny Brae, and Grade 3 was moved to De Soto with grades 4-7. Grade 8 was moved to Chatsworth with grades 9-12. 

In 2013, Ivy Academia secured a new site for grades 8-12, and moved from Chatsworth to West Hills. The site was located on the Shomrei Torah Synagogue site in place of the New Community Jewish High School. In 2014, grades TK-6 moved to William Howard Taft Charter High School, our third “co-location” school with LAUSD, and Sunny Brae and De Soto were no longer utilized.  Later grades 6 and 7 were moved to West Hills with grades 8-12. 

As a result of the settlement of the lawsuit and inability to access Prop 39 facilities and the renovation not completed on the newly acquired facility, all students in grades TK-12 moved to the West Hills facility. All classroom spaces were occupied by grades TK-8 while the high school operated out of the meeting rooms and banquet spaces in the synagogue building until the transition to distance learning in Spring of 2020. In April of 2021, staff and interested students moved into the permanent facility in Woodland Hills for the remainder of the 20-21 school year. Fall 2021 began the first official school year in the new permanent location for all grades TK-12 through Spring 2023. Fall 2023 will be the first year of the transition back to a TK-8th grade program at the Woodland Hills facility.