Charting a new path

"I was passing my classes but with Ds. Since coming here the lowest grade I've gotten was a C+. I was one point away from a B," she said with a smile while holding up her index finger.

The sophomore transferred from traditional public school into a local charter school, High Tech High in Redwood City, at the beginning of this school year. The smaller learning environment gave her an ease as she found less drama between teens and more support from strangers. The school, inside a converted warehouse type building, embraces open areas and displays artwork and projects on the walls and inside of trophy cases.

"It's weird. Last year I could care less about what was on the walls. Now that we know each other I'll see something and ask, 'Who did this?' It's strange caring about people you don't know," she said.

But this is the tight community Manman grew to love this year. The school, with only 200 students, meets once a week to give students a chance to present what they're working on while getting to know one another. Manman attributes this sort of support to her current success in school.

"It was hard leaving my two best friends. I had so much fun with them. We're still friends. But it was worth it for all I've gained here," she said.

Manman is one of the 2 percent of California students currently attending a charter school. California became the second state to allow such institutions in 1992, only behind Minnesota. Since the inception of charter school law, the alternative public schools are offering a choice to students and their families. The choice, while warmly accepted and appreciated by those involved, can cause frustration for the district that must fund them.

At High Tech High, the focus is on personalization for students and teaching real world skills now. The school currently houses only freshmen, sophomores and juniors. The first senior class will emerge next year. During the time a student spends at High Tech High, they will experience small class sizes, many projects and a required internship during their senior year.

"We want kids to learn the skills and practice the skills to be used in the real world. You can take a quiz and repeat, but it doesn't compare to a hands-on learning experiences. If

kids are going to learn physics and of potential energy, rather than read about it in a book, they build a roller coaster scale model," said High Tech High Director Joe Feldman.

These projects fill the school's halls for everyone to see and are the topic of conversation during weekly meetings.

Charter schools, like High Tech High, are public schools, put together and organized by parents, community member, educators or others. The schools can operate with nonprofit and for-profit universities, schools and organizations. They must petition to a local school district to issue a charter. The petition has many parts, including a financial and educational plan.

This petition can last up to five years and can be renewed afterward.

"The district or county can only deny a petition if it is financially not viable or it is not reasonably likely that the educational plan is viable," said County Counsel Tom Casey.

Once approved, the main difference between the two types of schools is who operates them. In a traditional private school, an elected school board handles the money and approves the curriculum. A charter school can do things its own way with a relaxed version of the education code to follow, said Casey. For example, a traditional school must spend a certain number of minutes doing physical education while a charter school doesn't have the strict restriction. While the teachers who teach math, English and science must be credentialed at both schools, art teachers and elective teachers at charter schools do not. This gives those schools a little more flexibility in curriculum.

Groundbreaking school

The original law limited the number of charter schools in the state to 100. The San Carlos School District was the first in California to open a charter school. The San Carlos Charter Learning Center was granted the first charter in 1993 and opened its doors in 1994 to 85 students. In San Carlos, six out of the seven schools within the district are charter

schools, only Central Middle remains traditional.

"I think some parents probably don't know. They like very much what we're doing and are happy with the education being delivered. As long as it's meeting the needs of the child, they're fine. At least when a parent comes in sometimes they're surprised, but I think it means we've made a smooth transition," said Superintendent Patricia Wool.

There are two types of charter schools, independent and dependent. The Learning Center works independently, which means the district gives the school the money in a lump sum and the school takes over from there. It works out how the money is used as well as the educational plan from that point. The independent schools run like traditional public

schools just with a few relaxed rules, said Casey.

In San Carlos, the five other charter schools are dependent schools. The switch was made in the '90s because there is more flexibility in the state regulations and a little bit more funding available than with regular schools, said Wool. Within these schools, however, things are run like a traditional school and the teachers are unionized.

Upcoming charter proposal

Most charter schools, however, are not dependent. Summit Preparatory High, for example, is an independent school that will be presenting its charter proposal on Wednesday to the Sequoia Union High School District.

Summit began in 2003 by a group of parents. Like High Tech High, Summit has 275 students this year with their first senior class set to graduate next year. The college prep school has a goal of sending 100 percent of its students to college, said Summit Director Diane Tavenner.

Every year, the students at Summit must take five core classes: math, English, history, science and Spanish.

"We picked that language because Spanish is the primary language of a lot of our students. A lot of students are good at different things. This give them a subject where they can excel," said Tavenner. She herself is still working on learning Spanish.

Any activities that take place at Summit are student-based and generated by student interest. Currently, a group of students is working on developing a student government.

The diverse group of students includes a few coming from Oakland, San Francisco and even San Jose every day for class. One thing about a charter school is it must open its doors to everyone. A lottery must be held if there are more applications than places.

Looking for permanent spots

Summit is in downtown Redwood City but will be moving to portables on the Sequoia High School campus in the fall. A facility search was necessary since the expected fourth class will overload the space the school currently rents.

California voters passed Proposition 39 in 2000. In addition to changing the requirements for acquiring bond money from voters, Proposition 39 also gave facility rights to charter schools as long as it had over 85 students, said Casey.

The fight to find a place to house the students seems to be the hardest for charter schools. In preparation, Summit founders made sure the school thought ahead and banked the money required for the first few years of facility rental. Even though the school has a place planned for next year, the search continues for a permanent place to house its student body.

With all the positive options offered by these charter schools, there still can be a negative effect on local school districts. As Sequoia Union prepares to consider Summit's charter, Superintendent Pat Gemma points out the applications can financially harm the district.

"When evaluating and authorizing a charter we must grant the petition unless it doesn't meet certain criteria. We're not allowed to consider the fiscal health or estate of the district. It took away the Board of Trustee's discretion. ... That's the biggest part of the charter school law I have trouble with," he said.

For each student at Summit, Sequoia must pay about $6,500 for the year. The district is budgeting close to $2.8 million for the school next year, he said.

"If we were flush with money, double the amount per kid, I probably wouldn't have a problem with charter school law," Gemma said. " ... There is no incentive for us to approve it but there is a mandate or a law saying we must approve it."

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.

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