Sean C. Morgan
The District 55 School Board will hear a proposal that it sponsor a charter school at its regular meeting on May 10.
Mary Northern of the Sand Ridge charter school asked to be placed on the agenda to present the proposal, Supt. Larry Horton said. Sand Ridge has approximately 200 students on a waiting list.
“Lebanon has basically, I guess, told them they don’t want to so increase the size of the school more than what is already there, so they are looking for other sites for a charter school,” Supt. Horton said.
Charter schools are public schools, Supt. Horton said. The charter school receives 80 percent of the state funding per non-high school student and 95 percent for high school students. The sponsoring district receives the balance of the funding, a total of approximately $5,000 per student.
They are semi-autonomous, operating under a contract, a charter, with a school district, Supt. Horton said. Charter schools must be non-sectarian, and charter applications may not be submitted to convert existing private or home schools into charter schools.
“You can run them more economically,” Supt. Horton said. “They can offer things that public schools can’t offer.”
Charter schools are exempt from some of the regulations governing regular public schools. Up to 50 percent of the teachers do not need state certification to teach.
As he understands it, all of the teachers at Sand Ridge are certified, Supt. Horton said. From where a charter school draws its students affects how the school will impact a school district, Supt. Horton said. School District 55 has approximately 80 home-schooled students within its boundaries. The district does not receive funding for those students.
If a charter school were to draw those students, the district would see an increase in funding when it picks up 20 percent of the funding per student moving into the charter school.
If it draws regular students, Supt. Horton said, “we’re going to lose 80 percent of the funding for that child.”
Charter schools must do state testing and show progress on state tests, Supt. Horton said. The schools must show fiscal responsibility, and the school must use a “air and reasonable” method of selecting students if the school has more demand than it can meet.
“We would have very little responsibility for their functions day to day,” Supt. Horton said.
The district can choose whether to sponsor a charter school following a public hearing, Supt. Horton said. If the district receives a proposal, it has 15 days to decide if the proposal is complete then 60 days for a public hearing.
“A study is done to determine if this sounds like a viable situation for the charter school and the district,” Supt. Horton said. If the district decides not to sponsor a charter school under Oregon law, then the charter school can ask the Department of Education to sponsor the school.
“The concerns are I don’t want to see the quality of our local system diminished,” Supt. Horton said. “It may be a win-win situation.”
As far as Sand Ridge, from what Supt. Horton can see, “I have no concerns over the program.”
While District 55 tries to provide a quality education, Supt. Horton said, “we also understand that regular public school doesn’t meet the needs of all kids.”
If a charter school helps meet those needs, “and it doesn’t negatively impact what I need to do, I’d be very supportive of it,” Supt. Horton said. “For this area, it’s a new concept. They are relatively new, but the number of them is definitely increasing.”
Provisions for charter schools were created in 1999.