With New Century Charter School pondering major changes to how it teaches kids, members of the Verona Area school board indicated Monday that they're open to new ideas.
Trying new things in education is "the thing charters are designed to do," board president Dennis Beres told members of the school's site council. "Reinvigorating the (New Century) charter, I think, would just make sense."
Since mid-summer, the site council - mostly parents - has talked about transforming the 100-student school into the first Chinese-immersion school in Wisconsin or perhaps the first so-called "green charter school" in Dane County. They've also talked about a less-drastic change of focusing on "21st-century skills" by, among other things, emphasizing the use of technology in the classroom.
The proposed changes come as the school - by far Verona's smallest - is struggling financially after years of district-wide budget cuts. And the timing is right, as its five-year charter, or contract with the school district, is up for renewal by year's end.
The changes could draw more families to the district for cutting-edge curriculum, proponents argue. That could open the door to growing NCS and thus improving its bottom line.
"That's a big part of why the charter renewal effort is happening," said Kristina Navarro-Haffner, a member of the site council who has a first-grader at New Century School and a third-grader at Glacier Edge Elementary School.
The site council still "has a lot of work to do" and hasn't decided yet if it will ask for a one-year extension of its current charter or submit a new 5-year plan for board approval before January, she said. Likewise, changes could happen next year or in 2011.
But before they get down to work, members wanted to know if the school board was behind them.
"We just really want to know that there's an openness to these ideas because we all have a finite amount of time and would like to use it wisely," said the school's interim director Lynn Berge.
That prompted Beres' comments that organizers should plow ahead.
"Why should we be afraid to look at some of these aspects and take some risks with this committed group of people?" he said, referring to the half-dozen site council members who attended the meeting.
Other board members had numerous questions. How are similar charter schools funded elsewhere? Would class sizes increase? How would kids with disabilities fit in? And would a Chinese or green school really bring new families to Verona?
The site council is still researching those questions, Berge said. But she answered one inquiry from board member Renee Zook by saying that current staff could remain under any of the proposed models.
For now, organizers continue to gather information. Berge and site council members recently visited the 6-year-old Oakwood Environmental Education Charter School in Oshkosh, which aims to integrate environmental instruction across all subjects. They're also planning a visit to a Minnesota charter school where students are taught in both English and Mandarin Chinese.
The visits help organizers figure out which model could work at New Century, Berge said.
"It really helps us to go to the school in Oshkosh, for example, and come back and be able to answer any specific questions about how one school does it," she said.
The council met with parents earlier this month to talk about potential changes and were greeted with both enthusiasm and "a bit of fear," Berge said. She expects the school will host "at least one more" parent meeting in October to keep them updated.
"We're trying to provide information and make sure people have a fair understanding," she said.
Navarro-Haffner said the group is tentatively planning to give the board another update in mid-November.
