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‘SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE’ CHARTER SCHOOL IS PROPOSED

By Jeannie Nugent/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, August 30, 2007 11:38 AM CDT

HUMPHREY — Local education enthusiasts are hoping that an empty grassy lot on the north side of town will be the home of a new state-of-the-art school facility come next fall.

Organizers of the proposed “School of Excellence” open-enrollment charter school will submit their application to the state Board of Education for the second time on Friday. The department rejected the group’s first attempt last year because it was too soon after the Humphrey School District was absorbed by the DeWitt School District.

This time around will be different, said Vicky Wilson, one of the school’s founders and a longtime Humphrey resident.

“I feel very good about it. I really do. A lot of people that saw the application last year really liked it and said it was very progressive,” she said. “They were worried about it being in a rural area, but there’s nothing we can do about that fact. We can just show them how we can be economically feasible in a small town.”

Wilson said the concept of the new school — which will initially house sixth- through ninth-grade students, with a grade level being added annually through the 12th grade — was conceived about five years ago because of consistently low scores on student standardized tests.

“We want a school that better educates the children than the current standards,” she said. “We felt like the schools are not offering everything needed for students to be successful. For example, most of the world is bilingual. That’s not the case in America.”

But the small-town group vows to change that, at least in their neck of the woods. By the time the school’s students graduate they will be conversationally fluent in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, Wilson said.

“Because of the area where we’re located, a lot of crops are marketed in Asian countries and Mandarin Chinese is the preferred language,” Wilson said, speaking of the surrounding agriculture-related industry that exports much of the country’s rice to foreign markets. “The world is no longer just a local place. Children need more of a global, economic outlook.”

And when it comes to recruiting teachers and administrators, the group was surprised to attract prospects from all over the world. The Mandarin Chinese instructor that was hired is currently living in China and has a master’s degree from the University of China.

“She was jumping at the bit to come here,” Wilson said. “She’s excited and said she wants the opportunity to teach in America.”

The group recently selected Dr. James Young of Magnolia as the school’s administrator.

“We started taking applications last year. We received them from all over the country, even one from Saudi Arabia. It was exciting,” Wilson said. “We had to narrow it down to three before we chose Dr. Young.”

The school’s curriculum will not follow the norm, Wilson said. Most public schools align their school subjects vertically, with very little connection between them.

“Ours is going to be aligned horizontally,” Wilson said. “It will take a lot more planning for the teachers and the director. They will have to work on it as a group. What the students are learning in English is going to be related to what’s being taught in history or math. It’s an integrated system that is based on a model from Stanford University.”

Wilson said the group is confident that the state board will give its stamp of approval this time around.

The Walton Foundation and the state backed up their faith in the school’s premise with nearly $30,000 in planning grants. Once the application is approved, funding from both entities could reach as high as $380,000. The school also has strong local support and is continuing to hold lucrative fundraisers.

There are currently 17 open-enrollment charter schools in the state. The institutions are tuition-free public schools founded and operated by individual organizations. The charter school format was established in 1995 as an alternative to typical public education. They are still under the state’s jurisdiction and are held to a high level of accountability, but are given more freedom to implement creative approaches to raising student achievement.

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