SCS ponders creation of high school

Sandpoint Charter: Parents want a choice

SANDPOINT - Parents of Sandpoint Charter School students want a choice when it comes to where their children attend high school, said principal Alan Millar.

One more option may be added by fall 2009 if Lake Pend Oreille School District agrees to modify the school's exisiting charter. The school now serves sixth through eighth grades.

Millar began a preliminary discussion about the issue with LPOSD trustees during the board's regular meeting Tuesday. The school district is the oversight body for the charter school.

“I think the genuine piece is that there's a need for it,” Millar said. The parents' philosophy is that “once size does not fit all.”

A recently completed survey of the school's parents indicates that they want their children to attend a high school with a philosophy and environment similar to Sandpoint Charter's small setting and project-based focus, Millar said. The concern was not so much with academics or the ability to offered advanced courses, he said.

Twenty-seven people responded to the survey - or about a third of the school's parents.

A conversation about expanding the school's charter began earlier this spring after Millar noted that he was having weekly discussions with parents about where their children would attend high school.

Once Sandpoint Charter students complete the eighth grade, their choices for attending high school are limited to Sandpoint High School, Idaho's virtual academies and several private schools.

The charter high school would not be located at the existing site, which not only does not have enough room for additional students, but also because there needs to be a division between the grades.

One board member asked Millar is the charter school has a space in mind, however, the charter school principal said that until LPOSD makes a decision on the request, it would be premature to do so.

When the charter school first opened, it started with 45 students in a rental space and that could be done again, he said. Much has changed since then, however, and there are businesses within the financial community which help set up charter schools and get funding for their establishment, he said.

If approved, the charter high school would open with grades nine and 10 the first year with space for 50 to 100 students, add 11th grade the following year and a senior class the following year, Millar said.

The model would include project-based learning for the first two years of high school, followed by independent study programs during the students' junior and senior years, he said.

The school would focus administrative resources during the students' last two years on what they plan on doing after high school - whether that be college, trade school or other options, Millar said.

Given the healthy working relationship between LPOSD and Sandpoint Charter School, it also is possible that the schools could have some type of dual enrollment agreement in which charter school students could attend AP classes at SHS, he said.

“I think we could actually pull that off”, Millar said.

Sandpoint Charter tried adding a ninth grade several years ago, but it failed after it became obvious that the issue of what students would do after that year was not resolved, Millar said.

He said that Sandpoint Charter is established enough now that he believes the timing is right to begin exploring the option. Millar was quite clear, though, that the process would have to be driven by parents and receive not only their support, but that they also would have to do the leg work.

Millar said he was surprised when 70 people turned out at the school to discuss the matter and said other people have become involved since then.

If LPOSD does not approve changes in the charter, Sandpoint Charter has until Sept. 1 to submit an application to the state for a charter school.

Chairman Vickie Pfeifer called the charter school's request for an August hearing with the LPOSD board “ambitious” and asked that trustees be given enough time to review the proposal, the law regarding charter schools and analyze the issue.

None of the current members of the board of trustees were on the school board when the district approved Sandpoint Charter School's original charter and they are unfamiliar with the details, she said.

The charter school anticipates submitting a written request to Supt. Dick Cvitanich for review and distribution to the board by July 25 - two weeks prior to its Aug. 12 meeting set for the charter school.

It is possible that the board could vote on the matter at its Aug. 26 meeting.

“Im comfortable that we can move through this expeditiously,” said board member Steve Youngdahl.

Idaho approves only six school charters a year, however, Sandpoint Charter would not have to go through that process if LPOSD agrees to the school's request to expand its charter.

It is common for Idaho charter schools to progress in this manner, Millar said.

Expanding the school's charter makes sense for Sandpoint Charter School and LPOS because so they are losing students beginning at the middle school level to virtual academies, he said.

Statistics also show that more students graduate when they stay in the same school, Millar added.