Bowling Green Charter School is a 50-year-old K-6 elementary school with an illustrious history that became California's 18th charter school in 1993. In the mid-1960’s it was featured in Sunset Magazine for its innovative arboretum, which was a focal point of community involvement and integrated thematic instruction. As one of California’s earliest charter schools, it has continued that noble tradition and embraced other ground-breaking policies, such as class size reduction, that have since become common throughout the district and state.

At this time the school is organized into six departments: the Primary Department, the Intermediate Department, the Math and Science Academy, the Multiage Department, the Spanish-English Developmental Bilingual Education Department (SEDBED), and the Physically and Health Impaired (PHI) Department. The school has approximately 850 students. There are 20 students in each primary classroom and approximately 25 in each intermediate classroom.  Six special day PHI students are fully included in general education classes.

Students from throughout the city and county are admitted on a first-come first-serve basis to our five general education departments. Students throughout the district are admitted to the Physically and Health Impaired Department by a Special Education IEP.

The ethnic composition of the student body is: 22% African American, 30% Asian and Pacific Islander, 34% Hispanic, 14% white and other. Approximately 50% of the students speak a non-English language at home. Spanish, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Cantonese are the major languages. Eighty-five percent of the students qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program.

History

• Prior to 1993 Bowling Green was a traditional elementary school in the Sacramento City Unified School District. The central campus is fifty years old.
• In 1993 the school became the 18th charter school in California. The charter was renewed in 1997 and again in 2002.
• In 1999 the school expanded with the construction of the BF annex of 17 classrooms. The Multiage Department started as a pilot joining the Bilingual Department at the annex.
• In 2001 the school library was expanded and renovated.
• In 2004 the West Wing was opened adjacent to the central campus with 11 classrooms, and the school was reorganized into 6 distinct departments: SEDBED (Spanish-English Developmental Bilingual Education Department), Multiage, PHI (Physically and Health Impaired), Math/Science Academy pilot, Intermediate and Primary.