New Jerusalem Elementary Charter School and Delta Charter High School are now one.

The two charter schools in the New Jerusalem Elementary School District were named Delta Charter School after the rural school board OK’d the merger at a special meeting Friday.

The kindergarten-through-12th-grade charter school now will operate with one budget. Charter schools are publicly funded and are free from some of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. New Jerusalem’s school board governs both Delta Charter School and its traditional kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school.

The district’s traditional school is New Jerusalem Elementary School, a rural Tracy school on South Koster Road founded in 1876. It shares the campus with the charter school but has its own budget, teachers and classrooms.

Delta Charter High would have lost its charter without a merger because a 2003 education law prevents an elementary school district from governing an independent high school. The California Department of Education gave the district until June 30 of this year to comply with the law.

“This is a great way to share resources between the two schools,” said Teresa Wickline, Delta Charter High math teacher and a New Jerusalem Elementary parent.

Trustee Chuck Petz said the merger will give charter teachers the freedom to teach classes at either the charter elementary or high school.

“There’s no budget boundary now,” he said.

Superintendent David Thoming said the merger won’t bring any other changes to the district.

The elementary charter school opened in fall 1999 and has 170 students. Delta Charter High opened to 18 students in 2001 and now has 240 enrolled. The district’s traditional elementary school has about 200 students.

Wickline was one of five people who attended the special meeting. Two elementary charter teachers, a parent and Stephanie Lytle, the charter high school principal, were also in the audience.