I have an idea. As I was thinking about my response to
Kelly Herold yesterday and as I read Dr. Hannon's editorial in the papers today
it occurred to me that the solution to this problem is right in front of us;
district 861 needs to charter the ALC! Now before everyone stops reading, please
hear me out (Understand that I come at this from the
perspective of a charter school administrator, so I'm hardly
unbiased.)
1. Charter schools were created to offer educational choice
options for students. What is the ALC if not an educational choice option?
Perhaps a chartered ALC could be expanded to include some or all of the other
alternative learning environments in place within the district?
2. Charter schools are autonomous organizations. The current
ALC is not. Thus, a chartered ALC could implement programs that might
otherwise be very difficult to bring about within our very traditional
public school system. For instance, a project-based
educational approach might be well-suited for the kinds of students who
find themselves in an ALC setting. So it is fair to ask what type of curriculum
is currently being delivered at the ALC? Is it pretty much the same as at Winona
Senior High School except that it's within a different "environment" or is
it very different? Could it be better?
3. Charter schools have a history of working successfuly with
unusual and sometimes difficult student populations. Sobriety High with campuses
in both Edina and Burnsville is an example of one such charter
school.
4. As I noted in my earlier post, charter school Lease Aid is
drawn from a statewide pot. Thus, the cost of a suitable facility need not be
born solely by local property tax payers. That alone is a big plus.
Such an idea would have to be sold to the school board
members, administration, current ALC faculty, and to the parents of students
involved in the ALC itself. Charters are teacher-parent run schools and they
cannot succeed without that component. At the high school level students might
play an important part in running such a school as well. Remember in just a few
years we hope that these "kids" will be working and voting and contributing to
the overall success of our society! Thus, active
student/parent and teacher involvement should be an important feature of such an
alternative learning environment.
District 861 does sponsor two charter schools and the district
is generally friendly towards charter schools. Nevertheless district governance,
administration, and the teachers' union continue to look upon charters simply as
undesired competition for student tax dollars. Instead of focusing on the
dollars, lets focus on the students. Charters only have students as long as the
schools "deliver the goods" and charters will continue to thrive as long as what
they deliver is available nowhere else.
Chartering the ALC just might be a win-win for both ALC
students and Winona taxpayers.
(So that's my "out of the box" thinking for
today.)
-Leslie Hittner
