Agenda for PPSEL Board 12.17.07

Note meeting is Cafe Silos, not Peterson Barn

6:30-8:00 PM
Cafe Silos on Styner
1. Welcome and updates
2. Approval of Minutes from Nov 25 and Dec 3
3. Approval of Revised Board Job Descriptions – Janet
4. Dates for meeting Jan-May.
5. Advisory Board – general concept orientation
6. Vision Grant. FYI, solicit feedback by email; discuss budget ideas (approve budget and submit Grant at January meeting)
7. Budget for PPSEL year 2009-2012 FYI. (approve budget and submit Charter at January meeting)
8. Mission statement revisions – develop plan to complete this work
9. Wrap-up/ review

Ashley will be sending various documents for review

Vision is an image of the future

As part of the process of educating the new Palouse Prairie Board, we have been working on key documents and organizational structures. One of the pieces we found was missing was a Vision Statement. Our November 26 meeting was devoted to talking about our vision for the school and finding words to describe it (appended below). Between then and tonight we drafted various ideas, and Ashley found the following guiding ideas.

Vision Statement
(adopted Dec 3, 2007)

Palouse Prairie School of Expeditionary Learning offers an inclusive, respectful and supportive learning environment that nurtures the individual as a thoughtful participant in our local and global community.

The essential role of vision
Vision is an image of the future.

Having a vision for education is central to school leadership, because vision is a source of motivation and energy. It powerfully shapes practice within a school community. Thus vision needs to be understood, articulated and owned by the whole school community. It provides both a source of inspiration and a frame of reference for developing professional values.

http://www.becal.org.uk/lc/vision/vision.html Becal I think refers to “British Education Council on Assessment and Learning”

"Vision Statements exist to help to achieve clarification and ownership of the school's overall purpose".

Key Ideas
A vision statement is usually the first part of a three-part statement of purpose. The next part is the mission, which is a concrete and localized statement of intent, and the third part is the values that are implicit in the vision and the mission of the school.

Vision: the ideal destination. It is where the school wants to be. It should be challenging, innovative and forward-looking.

Mission: the route to the destination. A particular expression of the vision that is specific to *this* school given its history, context and circumstances. It is a more practical focus on what the school does and will do than the vision statement.

Values: underpin the vision and the mission. No school is value free and it is important to be explicit about those values that are essential to the school achieving its vision. If values are not made explicit, then the values of the most dominant individuals are likely to be those which actually operate in practice.

Total Quality Toolkit by J. Marsh taken from the BeCal website above.

Words we chose to describe our ideas about PPSEL
(Vision meeting Nov 26, 207)

• Active and reflective learning
• Community (for everyone)
• High yet achievable goals, challenging, rigorous, successful
• constructive assessment
• Collaborative, collaboration, interactive way
• Supportive
• explorative learning, curious, active participant,
• safe (physical, cognitive, psychological) learning environment, respectful, respectful participant in our local and global communities
• responsible, personal responsibility
• Inclusive
• ownership
• supported in their efforts to learn
• Innovative
• lifelong learner, passion for learning, self-sustaining adult, life skills
• Excited, joyful
• Environmental, relationship with the environment (outdoor), environmental responsibility
• fun, friendly, warm
• efficient, ordered, professional
• nurturing
• civic engagement

Unapproved mintues from 11/05/07 Palouse Prairie board meeting

First, this is not where I'm envisioning uploading notes from meetings - I just couldn't figure out another place to do it and Nils and I have conflicting schedules today (we work in the same office). So, for the time being this is where they are. Nils had in an earlier post suggested that since these notes are public information, we should be as tranparent as possible and I agree.

November 5, 2001 Peterson Barn, 847 Travois Way, Moscow, Idaho.
Present, Nils, Ashley, Janet, Kirsten, Lahde. Absent: Linda and Donal.
Meeting started at 6:30 and ended at8:08, 38 minutes over targe time.

1. Welcome: Hellos and 1 minute update where we are on our tasks.

• Ashley: moving forward on vision grant budget and the advisory board job descriptions.
• Lahde: progress on 501 c3 - she'll email us with info requests should she have any.
• Nils: filed IRS form on 10/31; next is due 1/08.
• Janet: collecting info on budget planning.
• Kirsten: working on the vision grant - cutting and pasting from the charter.

2. Approve minutes from Oct. 22 meeting - they were approved.
3. Address issues related to incorporation: Nils.
4. Address changes to by laws: Lahde
5. Review, Approve and Assign School Board Job Descriptions: Janet
6. Other business.

Notes: first draft of school board job descriptions were unanimously approved. Nils: chair; Linda: vice chair; Janet: treasurer; Ashley: secretary; Lahde and Kirsten: board members. Decided we would try to share our individual vision statement drafts prior to the Nov. 26 meeting so people can prep in advance.

Proposed Vision for Palouse Prairie School

In preparation for our next board meeting, November 26th, I am posting my proposed draft of our vision - please post your drafts as a comment. I'm thinking we can all review the proposed visions prior to our meeting.

Proposed Vision: "Palouse Prairie School will become a leader in expeditionary learning. We will promote active and reflective learning throughout the school community that honors the learner and the learning process".

I initially had thought to include something about environmental stewardship and civic engagement - it's somewhat in the wording of Nils' notes from Boise, but chose not to as both are integral to expeditionary learning.

Refining the web strategy

After a Board meeting tonight I'm figuring out more of how to organize the web tools.

This blog now emails to a Google Group (Palouse Prairie), where you can subscribe. The purpose of the blog is to chronicle Board events in detail. There is also a Board Calendar who's RSS appears on this Blog.

For the less addicted, there is another Google Group (Why Palouse Prairie) which can serve as a newsletter for prospective parents. RSS from that also appears on this page.

Google Docs offers a mechanism for posting and editing documents, but the hosting for PDF files is not yet resolved.

Developing a new web strategy

Ashley and I (Nils) were discussing strategies for managing the web presence of Palouse Prairie. Its a public organization, so why do we not make documents public? Why not post most all our business straight to the web?

So, here is where I'm going with that thinking. Blogger (this blog) permits multiple authors posting, so authorize all the Board. Allow comments from people with Blogger accounts.

We already have a Google Calendar. Use it for Agendas and link to Minutes. The Calendar has an RSS feed.

Google Docs allows collaborative writing, and publishing of documents. I can't recall how well it does RSS, but documents could be mentioned in the blog and published from Docs. Docs does not do a great job of formatting, so when a document gets finalized, it should be run through MSWord, then printed to PDF. Its not clear where to store the resulting file.

The website itself is hosted in Google Pages, but last time I was there, it only allowed one person to edit. This is a real problem, which makes that tool unappealing. Perhpas we can dump Google Pages all together. Blogger and Calendar and Docs might do it.

Finally, I have created a PalousePrairie Google Group. This has the advantage that it can allow people to manage their own subscriptions to email. It can be set up are Announce-only. What I'm doing right now is exploring what happens when the blog is linked to send email to the Group. I suspect it will quarantine this post, but maybe (hope) I can teach Groups to just pass through posts.

Rising Again

In August we reported that Palouse Prairie was at a crossroads and asked for new energy and ideas.

Tonight I'm just back from a meeting with parents and educators interested in providing that energy and taking the reins as a new Board. We have several tasks ahead of us but the goal is still to assemble sound answers to the Idaho Charter School Commission's 3-part question put to us last April: Enrollment, Facility and Budget.

Among the pieces for developing that plan, the experience of this summer convinced me that we need a better communications plan, including more transparency and better ways of reaching and networking with interested supporters.

Look for more of that to unfold

Palouse Prairie at a Crossroads

Friends and supporters of Palouse Prairie School,

This is a long message, the key question I have for each of you is near the end.

I'm writing to share progress on the project, and because we have reached a crossroads.

As you recall, we got feedback from the Charter Commission on our Charter in April. There were some revisions to the Charter, but more importantly they asked us to address three issues: budget, facility, and enrollment. We now have in hand a contract to lease a facility to be built by Rob Davis next to the current Silos buildings.

The three issues are really different faces on one problem: the core business challenge of starting and running a school. For purposes of making a budget, the Commission has us use the estimated income of $4400/child enrolled. Bill Rivers and I have worked on the budget multiple times, and with the help of Mary Lang's Moscow Charter School experience. What we find is in agreement with advice we have been given -- to be sustainable a school needs an enrollment of 140 children. That number varies some depending on assumptions like wage levels, cost of facility, or EL consulting contract.

If 140 is a minimum self-sustaining enrollment, the school faces the challenge of how to get there. The Board does not believe that we could credibly expect to enroll 140 kids the first year. Bill and I have each tried opening year numbers ranging from 40 to 75. Most recently we have been focused at 50 in three classrooms on the Silos site.

These small enrollments can be sustained if you add in $150,000/yr Federal start-up grant. This use of "startup" funds to cover operating losses is problematic in that it does not account for how to pay actual startup costs, like buying furniture, etc. It is also problematic to build a budget around funds that have not been secured. We are not sure the Charter Commission will even accept this type of proposal.

The Federal grant runs for three years. Using it as strategy, however, highlights the enrollment side of the problem. If the school starts at 50 children, during the second year in the Silos we could grow to 75 (3 rooms of 25. Not ideal but all the site allows). This is only 1/2 of the numbers needed to be self-sustaining.

If the school continues its third year at the Silos with 75 children, then when the Federal grant ends after year 3, the school will need to close.

If, after two years the school is able to secure and move to a larger facility, enrollment could be larger in year 3. But how much larger? Assume we get 35 more children, making the enrollment 110. That would be a 5 classroom school. For year 4 we'd need to build two more classrooms and add 40 more children. Funding this new facility, and enlarging it is the challenge.

The business to this point will have been losing money, subsidized with Federal grants. If enrollment grows as suggested above, savings each to be used as down payment might be as high as: Year 1- $0; year 2 = $40,000; Year 3 - $80,000 For a total of $120,000. (Speculative, and dependent on good penny pinching).

Because the Board is not confident that this is a responsible strategy without identifying more resources we have decided to not submit a packet to the Charter Commission for the September hearing. Missing this deadline effectively puts the opening date to August 2009.

SUMMARY & CHALLENGE

Assets: A nearly completed charter requiring what we believe to be simple changes and an unsigned lease for a facility at the Silos.
Problem: Grow enrollment fast enough and find a larger facility to keep the school solvent. Find additional cash or donated resources to so the startup grant can be used to fund startup activities.

We need a new vision for how to proceed. It feels like we are close, but the Board is tired and I’m not seeing how to plunge ahead, where to base my faith.

What resource do you have? What insight can you offer?

One answer is you believe this can be done and you are willing to join the Board and figure out how make it happen. We probably need several such volunteers. Another answer is you know a financial "angel" who is willing to make this dream come true. There may be other answers as well.
If there are no significant new developments, the Board intends to disband the Corporation on Sept 30.
Thanks for all your efforts and commitment to this point

Nils for the Board

Parent Visit to a EL school

Parents Nancy Wilder, Lahde Forbes, and Dwena Nosebar along with PPS Board Chair Nils Peterson visited Summit School in Spokane Valley on Friday April 13. It was a lucky day, we saw the school in action and met with ELS School Designer Lorri Edwards, who is the designer assigned to Palouse Prairie School.

A request for each of the parents was that they write a reflection on what impressed them about the visit. These will be collected on a new feature in the Palouse Prairie website called WhyPalousePrairie. That page will be a place for voices of parents and community members to explain what they see at EL schools and/or how they see EL meeting the learning needs of their specific child.

Launching the Campaign for students and site

Palouse Prairie Charter School seeks students, site

Proposed school has first hearing before Idaho Public Charter School Commission

By Kate Baldwin, Daily News staff writer

Monday, April 9, 2007 - Page Updated at 12:00:00 AM

The Palouse Prairie Charter School is looking for students and a building before its second hearing with the Idaho Public Charter School Commission, which is set for May 24.

"What we are setting out to do is to find 140 kids and a facility by May 24," said Nils Peterson, who serves as the proposed charter school's board chairman.

Peterson compared these requirements for getting a charter to the classic chicken-and-egg problem.

"Without a chicken, it's hard to do some of these things," he said. "The commission is very clear: 'You get the egg and we'll give you the chicken.' "

Peterson was one of four board members and other supporters who attended the April 5 hearing in Boise. They presented their proposal and answered questions from the commission and its staff.

"I was encouraged by how positive they were," Peterson said.

He said three members of the commission already had had positive experiences with the proposed school's Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound model of learning, "so they were supportive of the model we were choosing."

The commission did raise concerns about the school's plans for transpor tation and its ability to find an external academic auditor.

Peterson said these solutions are quite easy. The proposed school would use a group called the Idaho Charter School Network to perform the academic audit. Meanwhile, Moscow School District Superintendent Candis Donicht offered the transportation solution. Peterson said Donicht gave her assurances at the meeting that the charter school will be able to contract with the district for those services.

The commission also set the date for the proposed Palouse Prairie Charter School to return, but did not make a final decision on its petition.

"We didn't expect a final answer," Peterson said. "The commission sent us back to work on two things."

The commission wanted to know if the Moscow community was big enough to support two charter schools and if a facility could be found that will get zoning approval.

"In Moscow, there is the complicating factor that you can't put a school anywhere without a (conditional use permit)," he said.

Peterson said the proposed school's board is brainstorming solutions for these two issues. There already are about 90 students on the list of interested families, so establishing a solid plan for a facility likely will be the bigger challenge.

There are many ideas out there. Peterson said the school could be housed in a shared public building, in a mobile unit on a vacant lot, or even in a mall.

"We'll be appealing to the community," Peterson said.

He said there are plans to grow support through a number of upcoming events like spring tours of other expeditionary learning schools on Friday and May 4, and a workshop on understanding student portfolios on May 26. There also is a tentative community meeting scheduled for May 31 in the 1912 Center in Moscow.

Board members previously have funded the school's start-up costs out of their own pockets.

"We're at the point where we need to raise funds," Peterson said.

He said the proposed charter school is operating in "year zero" because there will be many costs before the doors can open. The pieces needed for this phase range from hiring a director and teachers to buying furniture and supplies.

Peterson said once the charter is approved, it can receive an advance from the state. That money would come out of its first year's budget.

"If we spend the advance, we'd be robbing Peter to pay Paul," he said.

Peterson said the proposed school is ready for any help to step forward, through donations or other support.

"We need some kind of an angel," he said.

* More information on the school and the upcoming tours, workshops, and community meeting can be found at palouseprairieschool.org. Interested parties also can call Jessica Rivers at (208) 858-2025 to sign up for these activities.

QUICKREAD

* WHAT HAPPENED: The proposed Palouse Prairie Charter School presented its petition for permission to operate to the Idaho Public Charter School Commission.

* WHAT IT MEANS: The commission advised the proposed school on its concerns for a building, whether enough students are available and other technical needs. The commission also set a date for the proposed school's board members to return with a plan for addressing these issues.

* WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: The proposed charter school will return to the commission on May 24 for its second hearing.

* WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: The school is projected to open in August 2008 with approximately 125 students. It would serve students in kindergarten through sixth grade, with the goal of growing to serve students in seventh and eighth grades. The school follows the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound model of learning, which focuses on academic content and real-world projects.

Kate Baldwin can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by e-mail at kbaldwin@dnews.com.

Palouse Prairie Expedition to the ICSC

Palouse Prairie School had its day in the sun with the Idaho Charter School Commission (April 5). Commission staff had provided comments on the petition prior to the hearing. The comments were clear and the Palouse Prairie Board was able to address many of them prior to the hearing. Several Commissioners expressed awareness and appreciation of the Expeditionary Learning model chosen by Palouse Prairie. Commissioners focused on two questions critical to the success of the school:

1) Is Moscow large enough to support two charter schools? Can Palouse Prairie School raise enough enrollment to be successful?

2) Can Palouse Prairie School solve its facilities problem, which consists of two elements – locating/funding an adequate facility and getting past the City of Moscow Conditional Use Permit process. The first element of that problem is fiscal, the second potentially political.

These two issues can be seen as facets of the third concern of the Commission – budgetary soundness. Enrollment is the key driver of state financial support to the school and facilities are one of the major costs (following teacher salaries).

Another topic discussed at the hearing was transportation to school and Expedition-related travel. Palouse Prairie School appreciates the willingness of Candis Donicht, superintendent of Moscow Schools, to contract to provide yellow busses. Bussing is connected to the facilities issue. The District busses students to hubs where they transfer and complete their journey to school. If PPS were to locate a school far from a hub, there would be considerable travel time from hub to school, which would impact length of the PPS school day and push it below state minimums.

Discussion of these and other topics will appear shortly in the audio transcript of the meeting on the Commission website http://www.chartercommission.id.gov/meetings.asp.

The Commission deferred a decision on the Palouse Prairie Charter until its May 24 meeting and invited PPS to come back with answers to those key questions. Knowing that it was not possible to solve the facilities problem (especially since it requires hearings before the Zoning Board of Adjustment) the Commission indicated various ways PPS might demonstrate having a grip on the problem that could lead to a successful solution.

Returning from Boise, the Board of Palouse Prairie School is launching a twin initiative to address the Commission’s concerns: a campaign to find 140 children and a facility.

“We are Crew, not Passengers” is the motto of Expeditionary Learning. Palouse Prairie School will use that motto to guide its approach to these challenges. The first step is to recruit a crew – families of 140 or more children who are interested in attending the school. We will not only ask families if they are interested in attending, but ask them to say “Why,” in terms of their child’s needs and their beliefs about how PPSEL will be organized to meet those needs. Those “Whys” will be shared within the community to help inform others. That crew will not be able to sit by and wait for a school. Their ideas, energy and voice will also be needed to find a creative solution to the facilities problem.

Two broad directions to solving the facilities problem need to be explored: within the City and outside it. Solutions within the City are preferable for many reasons, including walking to school and access to community resources, but sites outside city limits may not have the same political/ zoning problems, and hence be more expedient and convincing to the Commissioners.

In terms of facilities themselves, two solutions need to be examined – existing buildings (with attendant remodeling issues) and green field sites (with attendant issues of using modular buildings for expedience).

This gives us a 2x2 matrix to explore: in and outside the City, existing buildings and green fields. It should be fairly easy to explore on of the cells (existing buildings outside the City), the other three will require more effort, which probably needs to start with zoning code research and learning the rules governing where a school can be sited.

Presenting the Charter to ICSC

The Idaho Public Charter School Commission (ICSC) will hear the Palouse Prairie School petition in its meeting on Thurs April 5, 2007 (link is to the agenda/minutes page). The Board has been busy revising some items in the petition in response to feedback from the ICSC staff. There is a way to dial in and listen to the proceedings live, and later they will post the audio to their website. Here is the last draft of the remarks Nils Peterson will present to the commission.

Building a Charter School Building

I ran across Mary Lang's book Building a Charter School Building: Creative Financing Options (PDF) (c) 2003 based on her experiences building the Moscow Charter School. Mary & MCS pioneered new ground in Idaho, creating both the first Charter school and then developing mechanisms to secure financing for a school building -- something not initially addressed in the Idaho Charter School legislation.

Of course this is a timely read for PPSEL as we are just entering the beginning of the process to secure a facility for the school. While the book is about building a facility, I expect that PPSEL will start by leasing something until we have financing stable enough, and time enough, to build something to suit our vision. ~Nils

Update: Charter Hearing Set for April 5

We have the official word that the Idaho Public Charter School Commission has set a hearing date on the Palouse Prairie School charter. Their agenda can be found here: http://www.chartercommission.id.gov/meetings.asp

Presently, Board members Bill Rivers, Donal Wilkenson, and Nils Peterson will be attending and presenting the school's petition to the Commission.

Palouse Prairie Charter School nears a milestone

Idaho Public Charter School Commission to receive proposed Moscow school's petition in April

By Kate Baldwin, Daily News staff writer

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - Page Updated at 11:41:42 AM

The proposed Palouse Prairie Charter School could be one step closer to opening.

Palouse Prairie Charter School Board Chairman Nils Peterson said the Idaho Public Charter School Commission is scheduled to receive the school's charter petition at its April 5 meeting in Boise.

"The important part is it starts the clock," he said. "It's exciting as a milestone. This whole thing is a process."

The commission will have 60 days to hold a public meeting after it receives the charter. From the date of the meeting, the commission will have another 60 days to hold a hearing and render a decision.

Getting an early start makes a big difference for a new charter school trying to open, since Idaho law only allows six new public charter schools to open each year. These schools are chosen based on the time of their application.

According to the commission's manual for charter schools, "as new charter schools are approved each year, the State Board of Education assigns them numbers on a chronological basis. The six public charter schools authorized to begin instruction during a given school year will be those that have been assigned the lowest numbers."

Each charter school has its own focus.

The Palouse Prairie Charter School is projected to open in August 2008 with approximately 125 students, which is roughly the same size as the Moscow Charter School. The school will serve students in kindergarten through sixth grade, with the goal of growing to serve students in seventh and eighth grades.

The Palouse Prairie Charter School will use the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound model of learning, which focuses on academic content and real-world projects. More than 140 schools across the nation are now using this system.

"The schools are not carbon copies of each other," Peterson said.

The Palouse Prairie Charter School Board is organizing spring expeditions to review some of the regional ELOB schools including Summit School in Spokane Valley and Kettle Falls Elementary School in Kettle Falls, Wash. These schools were developed by Lorri Edwards, a school designer based in Spokane.

Peterson said he expects that Edwards will be assigned to develop the curriculum and programs at the proposed Moscow school as well.

The tours of these schools are open to parents, teachers and students in the University of Idaho and Washington State University colleges of education. They will meet Edwards and get to ask questions.

"We want participants to bring back something for themselves and the community," he said.

Peterson said expedition participants may be asked to form their own mini-projects, similar to the projects that future students will complete, to try out the system during the tours. He said each participant can come up with their own contribution during the day trips. These might look like a letter to the editor or a suggestion for the student handbook.

"It's not a big-time commitment beyond the trip itself," he said. "What I hope is the participants will use their time in their carpool to reflect on what they saw and how that differs from a traditional school."

Peterson said the board also is organizing a workshop for parents to learn more about how to talk about schoolwork and assignments with their children. It will also show parents how to use the school's rubrics, which are the qualitative assessment tools to measure progress and learning.

Peterson said he got the idea while working to develop the rubrics for the proposed charter school. At the same time, he was trying to talk to his daughter about her Montessori school and her artwork.

"I wanted to say more to my daughter than 'I like it' when she showed me a drawing," he said. "Other parents are faced with the same challenge of talking with their child about their child's learning."

Peterson said the workshop will give parents a chance to think about other constructive ways to engage their child.

"I hope that these activities give the community a richer sense of what the Palouse Prairie Charter School will be," he said.

n The expedition to Summit School in the Spokane Valley will be April 13. The expedition to Kettle Falls Elementary School will be May 4. The workshop will take place sometime after spring break. Those interested in participating may contact Peterson at nilspete@gmail.com, or Jessica Rivers by phone at (208) 858-2025, or by e-mail at bjzrivers@cpcinternet.com.

Kate Baldwin can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by e-mail at kbaldwin@dnews.com.

Workshop: Talking to Children About Their Schoolwork

The idea for this originated while Nils Peterson was working on rubrics for the Palouse Prairie charter. (see How are we doing? 228K PDF). Nils was trying to understand how the guiding documents of the school could help him talk with his daughter about her Montessori school work and about her personal artwork. While valuable as parental approval, "I like it," is not the kind of input that helps a child understand how to grow or how to reflect on their work.

This workshop welcomes parents, teachers, and students in Education to talk about how Palouse Prairie School uses rubrics to give feedback about student work, and to accept feedback about its teacher's assignments. Participants will spend two hours looking at example student work and exploring how to talk with children and teachers about the work and the assignments that created it.

Expeditions to Area ELOB Schools

Palouse Prairie School is organizing "expeditions" for interested parents, teachers, Education students and others who would like to see an ELOB school in action. There are two trips planned in April, one to Summit School in Spokane Valley, WA and the other to Kettle Falls Elementary in Kettle Falls, WA. An additional trip to Summit is being planned for May. Dates for these trips will be posted on the school calendar.

Charter Goes to the Commission

At the April 5, 2007 meeting of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission, the Palouse Prairie Charter will be "received." This is a formal step indicating that the Commission staff have reviewed the charter and found it sufficient to begin its formal hearing process by the Commission. The event also will mark the beginning of the 60 day clock for the Commission to schedule a public hearing on the charter.

The Commission meets in Boise, but also has a call-in provision for people who are interested but cannot attend in person, contact the Commission for more information.

Charter School Moves Ahead

Charter school moves ahead with plans

Proposal could be approved Jan. 11 and sent to state commission

By Kate Baldwin, Daily News staff writer

Monday, January 1, 2007 - Page Updated at 11:28:01 AM

A proposal for a new Moscow charter school should head to the Idaho Public Charter School Commission this month after facing some delays this fall.Palouse Prairie Charter School board chairman Nils Peterson said the charter school board likely will approve its charter proposal at its Jan. 11 meeting. Once approved by the board, the proposal will be sent to the state commission for authorization.

“We did not submit the charter when we’d hoped,” Peterson said, referring to earlier plans to submit the proposal to the state by Thanksgiving. “The task turned out to be more complex than we’d estimated and then holidays intervened.”

The proposed charter school first sought its approval through the Moscow School District. Its board members stopped that process in September and decided to go through the state commission instead.

“The parents that I talk to, as well as other community members, have been interested in how we’re progressing and anxious for us to make it to this next milestone and have a charter,” Peterson said. “It’s been a very positive experience.”

While the change caused some delay, Peterson said the charter benefited in multiple ways from the detailed input it gained from the Moscow School District.

The proposal has been revamped with improved sections for its learning outcomes, its student handbook and its budget, he said.

For example, the learning outcomes section creates a tighter system of accountability for the school that will use the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound model, or ELOB. Peterson said this model uses a variety of principles that can’t be measured by the Idaho Standards Achievement Test.

The charter school still will require students to meet the minimums set by the ISAT, which is the state’s tool for meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind act. However, the charter school will have additional standards that coincide with its hands-on learning model.

Peterson said the learning outcomes section of the proposal now includes a rubric for measuring critical thinking and reflective thinking through a portfolio system.

“I am very excited to be holding ourselves to standards, I think that will be different,” Peterson said.

Once the proposal reaches the commission, there will be the same time frame for approval that existed through the Moscow School District. The commission has 60 days from the receipt of the proposal to conduct a public hearing in Boise. There then will be another 60 days before the commission must make a final decision.

“It could run us out well into May or June,” Peterson said.

According to its proposal, the charter school is scheduled to open in August 2008. It will serve students in kindergarten through sixth grade. As the students graduate sixth grade, the school will expand to serve first seventh grade, and then eighth grade.

The original plans called for a school with roughly 80 students. Further study over the past months revealed the school should plan for a range of 110 to 120 students, Peterson said.

“We’re not worried that we can reach the kind of enrollment number we’ll need,” he said. “As we get a little further in the process, you’ll start to see us become more visible in terms of a marketing effort to build up those numbers of people who have expressed interest.”

The proposed school has not taken steps toward opening a facility or hiring staff. Those are “things that just have to wait until we have a charter in place,” Peterson said.

Kate Baldwin can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by e-mail at kbaldwin@dnews.com.