Crafty Dr. Culver didn't find enough under his holiday tree this year. It seems has one last Christmas wish....and he used his blog to alert the school board to it.Dr. Culver wants a charter school. That's right. Not only have we initiated a "virtual" high school, a 4-year old kindergarten program, we're about to open a brand new high school, we're about to introduce a new stage...an "Upper Middle" school, oh...and we have a serious budget crisis. But to heck with all that...Dr. Culver wants more. He wants to spend MORE money and start a charter school.
And we all know that the school board supports 100% of administration's wishes. In fact, as we now know...in the last year, only 3% of all votes cast by school board members were "NO" votes. So it looks like the large image looming in our crystal ball for 2010 is the development of a charter school...with all the costs associated with it.
Can't we EVER just focus on improving the quality of what we DO have...before we begin something new?
Well...likely not so long as this current school board is the on the job.
But we should ask a few questions....dontcha think?
Like maybe what the district said and the school board approved about charter schools just this past March at the school board meeting of March 9, 2009:
" SUMMARY OF RESEARCH ON SCHOOL CHOICE OPTIONS
According to one of the most recent and comprehensive studies of school choice and student achievement (Miron, Evergreen, & Urschel, 2008), “Overall, the existing body of research on school choice reveals a mixed picture, with some studies suggesting positive impacts and others indicating negative impacts…There are few studies of inter-, intra-district choice and magnet programs, with mixed quality and impact scores. Charter schools studies are most numerous, but their quality is also mixed: they indicate that charters generally perform similarly to traditional public schools, a finding that has not changed with time or the addition of newer, high-quality studies in recent years.” (P.1 of Attachment 3. Also, see Appendix C of Attachment 3.)
CONCLUSIONS
1. Unless the Sun Prairie Area School Board wishes to change the philosophical direction of assignment to schools--perhaps creating more liberal opportunities for school assignment based on choice--Policy JC is sufficient as it currently is written.
2. If, or when, the school district develops school options for grades K-8, such as magnet schools, charter schools, or alternative schools, policy should be concurrently developed to address assignment to such schools.
3. An area of Policy JC that needs clarification is a concrete definition of “reside.” Over the years there have been various issues related to what “residence” means for the sake of determining school assignment. On February 2 the Education & Policy Committee recommended changes to Policy JEC, adding a definition of residency, and on February 23 the School Board approved. Policy JC should be revised to reflect the definition in Policy JEC. Such a revision is presented in attachment 1. "
Doesn't that seem to indicate that charter schools, while unique, don't offer any real advantages to our situation? So...what's changed since last March? What evidence is there that we NEED a charter school?
It's interesting to note that the vote by the school board was to re-review its Policy JC in June 2009. But that never happened. We did a search of BoardDocs to see if Policy JC was ever re-visited. Oh...wait...maybe this is just another one of those teensy weensy flaws in the $50,000 BoardDocs boondoggle. Well...at least it enabled each of the school board members to get a personal laptop!
For more info on Charter schools:Wisconsin DPI information on charter schools
National information on charter schools at www.uscharterschools.org
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