Nekoosa School Board Seeks $300,000 Charter School Grant (WI)

January 17, 2011

Charter school grants are among the only public funding sources that continue to grow, and a local school leader hopes to use those resources to benefit his district.

The Nekoosa School District could open its second charter school in the fall, as local officials seek state funding to establish a project-based alternative learning center for grades 6 through 12 come September. School leaders in the nearby Wisconsin Rapids district also are considering converting Rudolph Elementary to a charter school.

"There’s a significant amount of money from the federal government just waiting to start charter schools," said Nekoosa School Superintendent Wayne Johnson. "It’s innovation; it’s where public education is heading; it would raise the bar for the rest of the students in our district."

Modeled after TAGOS Leadership Academy of the Janesville School District, Nekoosa’s concept for a charter school would feature one-on-one instruction in which students earn course credits through completed projects. Learning would take place in cubicles, rather than desks in a classroom.

Johnson said the school day would be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Students would start their morning with a meeting with a teacher or counselor to discuss the students’ progress before continuing to work on a project that’s based on their personal interests.

"Let’s say a student is interested in world religions, or NASCAR, or a medical field — all their core subjects would revolve around that hot topic that gets them excited about learning. They still have to learn all the standards from traditional school," Johnson said.

The Nekoosa School Board voted 3-1 Tuesday night in favor of allowing the district to seek funds from the state for the charter. Johnson hopes to receive a charter school implementation grant of $300,000 to open the learning facility by the fall. No location has been determined for the potential school; the deadline to request a grant is April 15.

The school would likely have an enrollment of about 50 students, 24 of whom would transfer from the Nekoosa Academy alternative school. The remainder of the open spots would be available to any interested students in the school district. If more than 50 total students wanted to join, a lottery process would be used.

School Board member Bob Shear was the lone dissenter in the School Board vote. Shear said he opposed the measure because he’s worried a grant of up to $300,000 wouldn’t be enough to cover the costs of starting the new school.

"It would probably set up a point where the district would have to take more money from the core schools and funnel some of those funds to get the charter started up and running," Shear said.

On Tuesday, the board also approved about $240,000 in reductions for next school year.

After opening in fall 2007, TAGOS now has 83 students and four staff members, said Nic Manogue, adviser/co-dean of studen ts. Manogue said he never enjoyed teaching and working with teenagers as much as he has the last few years at TAGOS.

"We try to build relationships with students. Building that relationship, we find, builds hope, attendance and the likelihood they are going to graduate," Manogue said. "A lot of times in our traditional settings, we’re doing a lot of ‘just in case’ learning — we’re learning things just in case we need it. We are pushing for ‘just in time,’ so they are learning things just in time."

Manogue said he likes to see his students complete at least a 50-hour project every six weeks. Every 50 hours earns a half-credit, he said.

While TAGOS focuses on students who are at-risk of not graduating from a traditional school, it, like Johnson’s vision for a charter site, is open to all students. Johnson said a student attending the charter facility could actually graduate from the high school as young as the age of 16 or as old as 20; the graduation date depends on the student’s progress.

"I think (16) would be very rare, but if you had that special child who was mature enough and had met all the national core standards, why would you hold them back?" Johnson said.