Wednesday, December 24, 2003
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Wednesday, December 24, 2003 |
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Tight money delays Fayette charter school By J. FRANK LYNCH Ambitious plans to seek approval to open a charter high school in the LaFayette Educational Center once Whitewater High School’s freshman class moves out next year have been delayed, but aren’t dead. The Board of Education heard an update on progress being made for a charter school at its meeting Dec. 15, right after taking a vote to amend the midyear budget slightly to give teachers a half-percent pay raise promised last June. That kind of tight budget worries Superintendent John DeCotis, who told the board that cost concerns were the main reason why he wants to spend more time fine-tuning the charter school plans for the time being. “We couldn’t open this school next year even if we wanted to,” DeCotis said. “It comes down to money constraints.” A task force of community leaders, parents and educators have been meeting for months to perfect the charter itself, which spells out in fine detail what the school’s goals, mission and vision will be. Both the state and local school board must OK the charter before it can open and start offering classes. The earliest that could happen now is 2005. There has been no official estimate of startup cost, but the charter proposal includes new positions for an “executive director” or principal, a couple of assistant administrators and at least 16 faculty members. As many as 250 students are expected to enroll in the first year. As proposed, the Fayette County Charter School would essentially serve two different roles: As a training ground for advanced technical/career education programs, and as a place to offer study in advance college prep courses and languages, or even college credit-level classes. Ed Steil, principal of the Evening High School at the LaFayette Educational Center where the FCCS would be based, said a full-range of high school credit courses may one day be offered, but the school would start out by offering a central location where students could come to take a class not offered in the traditional high schools due to lack of interest. For example, none of Fayette’s high schools presently offers Advanced Placement courses in any language, but the FCCS would in Spanish, French, German and Latin, and possibly offer Japanese and Russian language study as well. “We’ll plan enter high school core courses down the road, way down the road,” said Steil. Students would be able to stay enrolled at their current high school while also taking classes at the FCCS, Steil said. They would also be able to do joint enrollment of college credit classes through Gordon College or Griffin Technical Institute, something which is offered now but few students take advantage of. “We want it to be more,” Steil said. Chamber of Commerce officials are stymied in their efforts to attract businesses and industry to the area, Steil suggested, by the lack of a trained technical workforce. That’s why the partnership with Griffin Tech is so vital, he said. Courses in horticulture, culinary arts, electronics maintenance or aviation mechanics are the type being proposed. Pam Riddle, assistant superintendent for instruction, said the charter school is intended to compliment the current high schools, not steal away the “best and brightest” or strip them of their vocational programs already in place. “One of the rumors finding its way around is that we are going to do away with the comprehensive high school curriculum, when that is absolutely not the case,” Riddle told the board, asking them for a clear message of support. “We need to know that you will support this and that you are for this, before we move on to the next step,” Riddle said. That next step, a community survey, will go a long way in answering any lingering questions and discovering the needs that the charter school can fill, from both parents as well as business and civic leaders, Riddle said. “We still have a lot of work to do, but this survey is the right next step,” said Riddle. “We’re happy to wait, and when we get more comfortable with the budget, we’ll do more.” The survey will be sent out early next year. What would Fayette’s charter school do? It’s still just a proposal, but the Fayette County Charter School would operate with an independent board of directors out of the LaFayette Educational Center and offer advanced college-level academic classes and intensive vocational and technical training. Students from any of the county’s five high schools could apply to enroll, but because the school will still be public, it cannot charge tuition.
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