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The Monterey County Board of Education unanimously approved a permit for Bay View Academy on March 3, contingent on certain conditions being met by April 29. By then, Bay View must have a lease agreement in hand, and obtain pre-approval for at least a $375,000 grant from the California Department of Education.

Bay View organizers are mostly parents of Bay View Elementary School in New Monterey, which the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District plans to close.

The county's charter is granted for two years, short of parents' requests for a five-year charter. Organizers persisted despite Board of Education concerns regarding a lack of racial and ethnic diversity on Bay View Academy's board. For the 2009-10 academic year, Bay View Elementary was indeed a few shades whiter than MPUSD overall: At Bay View, 10 percent of students were Asian, 26 percent Latino, 2percent black and 53 percent white. For MPUSD, 6 percent were Asian, 47 percent Latino, 8 percent black and 27 percent white.