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.