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.