Previous: When Your Child Changes Schools

Table of Content: May 2001

Home  Library Join

CHARTER SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT: Working together for the community When parents first started organizing the Mountain View Core Knowledge School in Canyon City, Colorado, there was some skepticism. After all, the concept of a charter school was new to this small town in the southeast corner of the state. But it didn’t take long for parents and the traditional public school system to embrace the charter school. Serving students in kindergarten through 8th grade, Mountain View has 225 students with 1,000 on a waiting list. Canyon City is a great example of the cooperation that can be achieved between the traditional public school and the charter school. Frank Cooper, Fremont R-1 Superintendent in Canyon City, initially was concerned that the school would be “elitist.”  But it was evident from day one that Mountain View would welcome a cross section of students. To help serve kids at risk, the charter school has reserved an extra spot in each grade to receive a student from the traditional public school, if needed. Just when the elementary schools were facing potential overcrowding, the charter school opened and helped ease class size in the community overall. Joint meetings between the boards of the charter school and traditional public school have fostered communication. The schools invite teachers to training at each other’s facilities. In many ways, school choice has been good for Canyon City. Cooper finds parents are more supportive and committed to a school that they have selected for their children. “I think the community has accepted us,” says Lori Soden, mother of a 7th grader at Mountain View. The charter has a positive rapport with the superintendent and it has helped the public school system solve some problems. And for her son, Bryson, it has provided a needed academic challenge. Parents are key to the charter school’s success. Linda Carlson, founder of the school, has put about 20 hours a week into her role as president of the school’s governing board for the past six years. Last year, the school had 100 percent parent involvement; parents there volunteered a total of 30,000 hours.  “You have the parents doing the work,” says Carlson, mother of three children in the school. “We’re in this for the kids. It can help.” for home science experiments at www.sites- forteachers.com. MATHEMATICS The key to mastering mathematics is practice. Stop your child’s math skills from getting rusty during the summer. For the younger child, make math flashcards to review addition, subtraction, multiplica- tion and division. Upper elementary school children would benefit from work- sheets found at www.abcteach.com and www.rhlschool.com. Also, check out some excellent mathematics-based computer software produced by Sierra, The Learning Company and Broderbund to keep up math skills. Whether it’s exploring tide pools at the beach or enjoying an outdoor concert at your local park, the summer can be an important time for your children to be together with and learn with their first and most important teacher: you. CONTINUED   FROM PAGE   1 Spark your child’s imagination this summer