Charter school's capital campaign explained
Idaho now has 32 charter schools. Each of them has found different ways to fund facilities and operating costs for their school, since charters do not have access to local taxes. Sandpoint Charter School’s facility funding comes from a USDA Rural Development loan program, in partnership with Mountain West and Panhandle Bank. This USDA program helps smaller communities like ours finance projects and infrastructure development.
It may not be clear from your article of February 19th that Sandpoint Charter School’s board of directors made a decision not to finish our new building at this time. However, the core and shell of the building along with 14,000 square feet of the interior will be finished and ready to occupy by the end of May. By sticking to a conservative business plan, the school will be able to manage our mortgage costs as we add grade levels and grow into a high school. We are actively pursuing private donations and foundation support to finish our new high school building.
Charter schools exist because parents and students want to have educational choice. In our community, students and parents can choose from private schools at varying grade levels and public options including our school, conventional schools and virtual charters. Sandpoint Charter School has grown to its present size because parents choose to send their students to our school. Our educational philosophy emphasizes a rigorous project based model of education, along with a uniform dress code and small class size.
Finally, to understand our school better, it might be helpful if I can tell a story. After the Haiti earthquake a teacher in our high school mentioned to her students that perhaps they could find a way to help. The students researched what had happened, found an appropriate place to donate and were able to use the project based skills they have honed at our school. They called local businesses, other schools and came up with plans to raise money. Kids helping Kids; Change for Haiti raised more than $3,000 in less than two weeks. Like many of our educational projects, this campaign had a final presentation component when students gave a check to a doctor headed to Haiti. Our students learned that it is possible to make a difference and that they had skills and talents that applied to the real world.
Right now in Idaho our educational system is sometimes reduced to folks fighting over money. It is easy to be somewhat cynical about the process. It is perhaps worth remembering that education is intended to give our children better options in life. The students in my school involved in raising money for Haiti reminded me that education is an idealistic endeavor, sending the best of us forward into the future.
Alan Millar is the principal at Sandpoint Charter School.