KUA's decision to shut down White City Campus

WHITE CITY, Ore.- NBC5 is learning more about the decision to shut down the Kids Unlimited Academy public charter school White City campus.

According to a letter given to White City families on January 11th, KUA terminated its relationship with the Eagle Point school district after years of serving the community. The campus is set to close its doors at the end of this school year.

The letter says circumstances beyond KUA‘s control made it incapable of expanding the school’s ability to accommodate students beyond the second-grade level.

CEO and Founder of Kids Unlimited, Tom Cole says even with a generous donation, KUA‘s hands were tied.

“And the irony is that we have presented a donor who was going to make an investment of almost 25 million dollars,” Cole said, “and at every turn, you know, faced what turned out to be insurmountable obstacles”.

The letter says KUA White City has a public school charter contract for grades K through 5, but because of obstacles like zoning restrictions, land use laws and others, it has no choice but to close the charter contract.

The letter also says “land or facility acquisitions through the school district were solicited but deemed by the district as unfeasible”.

While Eagle Point school district couldn’t talk with NBC5 today, they gave NBC5 a statement that reads in part quote:

“It was unfortunate that KU was unable to expand as initially intended. Eagle Point School District 9 looks forward to serving those families in our schools for the 2024-25 school year”.

KUA wrote in the letter that its “commitment to White City will not waiver”. It’s focus now must shift to assisting and supporting families in their transition away from the White City campus.

The letter invites families who want to continue their relationship with KUA to come to their Medford location.

NBC5 also reached out to Jackson County regarding obstacles such as zoning laws and land use restrictions but haven’t heard back yet.

This is an update of the 1/11/24 article, which can be found here.