Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The public got a look at Sweet Home Charter School last week when the new school hosted its first open house.
The school has yet to reach its maximum authorized enrollment this year, but it’s close with a total of 83 students, counting part-time kindergarteners. It is authorized for up to 90 students. The school opened in September in a building leased from the Church of Christ at 18th and Long.
“What people are doing is sitting back and waiting to see what this school will do,” said Mary Northern, who is acting administrator this year. The open house drew attention from people who are considering placing their children in the school, she said.
The open house gave them a chance to ask questions and learn more about the charter school, Northern said. The school has done well without advertising, relying instead on word of mouth; and people are interested.
Many still wonder what a charter school is, she said.
“I think some people have no idea what a charter school is – a public school of choice. We still get people asking how much does it cost to go to that school.”
Northern said she has also had people tell her they are “waiting and watching to see what happens,” Northern said. “We had a lot of community people who would ask us certain things, like what we plan to do.”
They want to know things like whether the charter school will include high school. The school was not planned with a high school in mind.
“This is a parents’ school,” Northern said. “If the parents simply want to go on, it’s the parents’ call.”
A local advisory board of parents holds monthly meetings prior to the monthly meeting of the People Involved in Education (PIE) board meeting. PIE operates the Sweet Home Charter School and Sand Ridge Charter School in Lebanon.
That committee provides a method for parents to provide input into the school and access to the PIE board, which provides time at each meeting for parents and others to ask questions and address concerns.
The school boasts 18-student classrooms, with a teacher and aide in each. Right now, it has a full first grade and a full second- and third-grade blend. It has one opening in the fourth grade and at least six openings in half-day kindergarten classes.
Next year, the school will add a fifth grade and a second first-grade class.
Right now, the school employs four teachers, four aides and a school secretary. Northern is a volunteer.
“It’s a new school,” Northern said. “All of this staff is new to this program, so we’re doing a lot of staff development.”
PIE is replicating its program at Sand Ridge.
Both schools use the Core Knowledge curriculum, Northern said. The curriculum is a “building program,” she said. “Each year, it builds on itself.”
The school does not just use phonics to teach reading and writing, she said. It uses a whole-language program developed by Riggs Institute, which also uses phonograms.
It relies on repetition as well as teaching students why words are spelled the way they are, Northern said. It explains why different sets of letters go together. Flash cards provide information about many different combinations of letters and how they are used, and classes work through them together.
The Charter School is also running an all-volunteer homework club after school. Northern and staff members volunteer to help students with their homework. Usually at least three members of the staff are helping.
The school is required to meet state benchmark and portfolio requirements related to the 21st Century Schools Act.
Sand Ridge is running at 100 percent in math and reading, she said. Through the sixth grade, 100 percent of students are meeting or exceeding state benchmarks. Like other schools, the number of students meeting or exceeding state benchmarks falls.
“This is our fifth year at Sand Ridge,” Northern said. “We want to replicate a proven program. People need to get on the Internet. They need to check into it themselves.
“Thirty kids is simply too many for one teacher,” she said. “It’s not fair to the teacher.”
“They’re going swimmingly,” PIE Board Member Doug Miner said of the new school. The school is living up to the board’s hopes, “the enthusiasm and the parent involvement.”
PIE board members told the District 55 School Board during the charter process that Sand Ridge had a long waiting list and expected some students to transfer to Sweet Home.
“We do have at least one Lebanon person that comes from Lebanon because they couldn’t get in over there,” Northern said. But she said concerns that the charter school was drawing students from the Sweet Home district are not substantiated.
Fifty-nine percent of the students at the charter school were not educated in District 55 at all last year, Northern said, though she acknowledged some of those were in kindergarten.