The Sausalito Marin City School District and Willow Creek Academy charter school in Sausalito have reached a settlement that clears the way toward unifying the district’s two schools, officials on both sides announced Wednesday.

“We can now focus our energy on supporting classrooms and student outcomes where it matters most,” said Ida Green, president of the school district’s board of trustees, said in an online briefing.

“I don’t think any of us could have imagined that we’d be announcing this at a virtual press conference,” Green added. “While our country has taken a forced pause, we are moving ahead.”

Kurt Weinsheimer, president of the Willow Creek board of trustees, said the agreement will give stability to the Sausalito school. The charter is under district authorization and oversight.

“Families can now be confident that their children will return to Willow Creek next year with the classrooms and curriculum needed to support our diverse school community,” he said. “This agreement demonstrates how the district and Willow Creek leaders can support all students in our public schools through collaboration.”

Weinsheimer added that the agreement was a “hopeful sign.”

“In this time of pulling back, we were able to move forward to support the kids,” he said.

The legal dispute involved Willow Creek’s claim of district violations under state Proposition 39. Prop. 39 allows for “reasonably equivalent” facilities for charter schools at public school campuses. The charter school’s campus in Sausalito is owned by the district.

Under terms of the settlement, Willow Creek is agreeing to drop the lawsuit, while the district will provide financing to support the continuing stability of the Willow Creek operation as the unification efforts go forward.

“I am encouraged by the collaboration of the respective boards and the ongoing engagement of our community,” said district Superintendent Itoco Garcia. “We are particularly focused on our role as a full service community school district and the needs of our students and families.”

He said the coronavirus pandemic showed how the two communities could “unify around the things that really matter” by collaborating on such things as food deliveries to vulnerable families and giving out masks and safety supplies.

“We remain fully committed to: maintaining fiscal solvency; ensuring excellent education; and the spirit of consensus building, collaboration and community engagement in unifying the two schools,” Garcia said.

Willow Creek board member Alena Maunder, a member of the negotiating team, agreed.

“We are living in an unprecedented crisis and this is the time to work together for all the children and parents of our communities,” she said. “I feel we can now provide parents with the assurance of stability for next school year, allowing us to home in on unification and program development.”

According to the joint statement, the district has agreed to provide funding to Willow Creek based on previously budgeted enrollment and will be providing custodial staff and continued maintenance for Willow Creek.

The funding for Willow Creek will help significantly reduce the impact of recently announced reductions in programs and staffing for the next school year, the statement said. The agreement allows the charter to stay on its campus as the school works to unify with the district-run Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City.

District board member Debra Turner said she the settlement was “historic and wonderful” in that it showed that “this unique place in the Bay Area — Sausalito and Marin City — have the opportunity to light the way for the rest of the world” as to how divisions over longstanding racial, socioeconomic and cultural disparities can be resolved.