Palouse Prairie Awarded Charter

Unpublished article written for Moscow Food COOP news


Written by Nils Peterson, Board Chair

In a historic move, the Idaho Public Charter Commission just voted to reverse its decision of March 6 and to approved the Palouse Prairie School of Expeditionary Learning's Charter petition, to open in August 2009. The decision was based on new materials developed since the March denial and submitted first to an Appeals officer and then refined and submitted to the Commission today. The location that Palouse Prairie proposed as its first choice facility is currently Now & Then Antiques at 321 East Palouse River Drive.

This news item exemplifies one of the ten design principles of an expeditionary school. # 5 Success and Failure says: "All students need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important for students to learn from their failures, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities.” The March denial and appeal process was an occasion for the Palouse Prairie Board to learn from perseverance. Additional work to discover and research the Now & Then facility and access to additional grant funds turned the corner.

Expeditionary Learning emphasizes teamwork as part of its learning strategy and the greatest successes of Palouse Prairie to date have come from teamwork, among the Board and between the Board and parents and supporters. The next phase, from Charter to Opening in 2009 will require more learning teams, and the Board welcomes contact from supporters with offers of collaboration and other resources.

Next steps include clarifying remaining remodeling issues and then moving forward with a contract to lease and obtaining a Conditional Use Permit from the City of Moscow to operate a school. The PalousePrairieSchool.org web site has opportunities to volunteer, links to EL resources and more information about the school. Contact nilspete@gmail.com