SCS dedicates high school

SANDPOINT —  When it comes to charter schools, Collin Kindred and Matt Smith are no tenderfoots.

They have each attended the local charter school for several years.

They like the curriculum, the lap size computers that they use for assignments and turn in at the end of the day, and they like the small school environment.

“It’s a lot different than other schools I’ve gone to,” Kindred, a sophomore, said.

The two students plan to finish their secondary education at the Sandpoint Charter School, which added a building this year that will allow them to stay enrolled until graduation.

Recently, at the dedication ceremony of the 20,000-square-foot facility, the two teens, among the guides to show guests around the premises, were assigned to an unexpected visitor.

They showed Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna the new facility and explained the school’s education philosophy to one of the charter school system’s most vocal supporters.

 Luna, who has supported alternative education philosophies even before his election to the top education department position in 2006, said the Sandpoint school is a model for a changing education system.

“We talk about reformation when it comes to education,” Luna said. “What we really need to talk about is transformation.”

Luna was among state and city officials at the school’s early June dedication that included state representatives Shawn Keough and George Eskridge, representatives from congressman Walt Minnick’s office and Sandpoint Mayor Gretchen Hellar.

Luna lauded the facility’s innovative use of space, the students’ use of technology and the school’s teaching methods.

Sandpoint Charter’s new facility includes a large common area, small classrooms where teachers assign work and help small groups or individual students, and a communal work environment where students work on projects using small, assigned computers they carry with them like a textbook. 

“It shows what can happen when people think outside of the box,” he said. “There is more than one way to meet our responsibility to education.”

Charter schools offer customers more choices in education and often use less money, Luna said.

“They have to be more prudent than traditional schools in how they use their money,” he said.

The Sandpoint school began when volunteers wrote a charter and started the school almost a decade ago. It opened in 2001 as a middle school and continued interest and growth prompted the need for more space and the addition of grade levels.

There is no library — if you have a question, google it — no busing and zero athletic programs. The focus is on education, the juxtaposition of high tech and low budget.

“We practice a rigorous hands-on, project-based educational philosophy,” Alan Millar, school principal, said.

What does that mean?

The answer, he said, took nine years to develop and is still being worked on.

 Aside from hands—on learning geared toward real world situations, the school stresses research, problem solving and critical thinking, he said.

“We want our students to be involved in their education- to make the choice to be here and to make the choice to learn and achieve,” Millar said. “We are trying to create the feel of a college library, a relaxed but serious place to learn.”

 The new building has no lockers, no hallways and uses oversize windows to provide an atmosphere “full of light and fresh air,” he said.

The school was paid with a $2.2 million loan from the USDA in combination with Mountain West Bank and $133,000 in grant money. An additional $100,000 grant was secured from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation.

The school is still enrolling students for its ninth grade, and is in the process of raising money to bring the new building to completion. Two classrooms that could be used for community learning have yet to be finished.