VALLEY CENTER -- Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District trustees were surprised with the news Wednesday night that a small, reservation-based charter school that they were set to close had already "voluntarily" shut its doors.

A lawyer representing All Tribes American Indian Charter School told trustees during a special board meeting Wednesday that the school's governing council approved a resolution Monday to close and relinquish its charter because the "relationship with the district superintendent was not a good one."

The school's attorney, Jerry Simmons, from the Sacramento-based law offices of Spector, Middleton, Young and Minnley, presented the board and district officials with the resolution and said that All Tribes would reopen under a new charter on the Rincon Reservation in September.

"We will reopen in September, it will be with another district or charter, and it will have the possibility of being a K-12 school," All Tribes' co-founder and lead teacher, Michelle Parada, said after the meeting. "Other districts are friendly to charters. … They are not about shutting them down."

Parada and other school administrators would not elaborate further on their plans, saying only that they are working with four school districts and charter schools that are interested in sponsoring All Tribes. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has also offered to sponsor the school, co-founder Mary Ann Donohue said.

All Tribes served about 60 students in grades six through 12 from Escondido, Temecula and seven area reservations last year.

Typically charter schools -- which are publicly funded, performance-based schools and that are free from many of the state education regulations and laws -- only operate within the boundaries of their sponsoring school district.

There are some exceptions that allow charter schools to operate outside of a sponsoring district's boundaries, which would have to occur in the case of All Tribes, Simmons said. The exceptions include, but are not limited to, when a district does not have a large enough facility to house the charter program in its boundaries or the school is run as an independent-study offshoot of an exiting charter.

Officials and board members appeared to be shocked by the news that the charter school was leaving the district, and confused about what action they should take. Board members had convened for the special meeting to make a final decision on whether to accept the district's recommendation to shutter the eight-year-old school.

District Superintendent Lou Obermeyer had recommended that the board revoke the charter unless the school's administrator Donohue resigned or the campus became a private school, essentially disassociating itself from the district. Obermeyer said she had not received any indication from the school's governing board or administrators before the meeting if they were going to proceed with either option.

After some discussion with the district's lawyer, though, the five-member board voted unanimously to revoke the charter because of ongoing concerns with management of funds, fiscal solvency of the school over the next two years and All Tribes' leadership.

Trustees could not legally vote to accept the governing board's resolution because it was not on the agenda.

"It's not a matter of beating someone to the punch, it's a matter of fulfilling your legal requirement under the education code," the district's attorney, Dan Shinoff, said, instructing the board to follow through with its vote to revoke or decline to revoke.

With the decision by the board and the charter school, All Tribes' relationship with the district was ended.

Under the charter school's resolution, Valley Center-Pauma Unified will be paid $1 for its share of the assets under the charter. The school's remaining funds and assets will be given to a reservation education center after all the debts and obligations of the charter have been paid.

All of the school's employees, with the exception of Donohue, will receive severance pay through Aug. 31, according to the resolution. Donohue will be paid while the school closure process is completed.

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.