MERIDIAN, Idaho (AP) The 20-foot cross was removed from the church steeple two years ago, not long after the Compass Public Charter School moved into the building.
The religious imagery inside is discreetly hidden while 420 students study math, reading and science. A large room with a vaulted ceiling and stain glass windows serves as the band room, and a curtain covers a small cross above the pulpit.
This charter school in a former dairy town of 71,000 isn't the only one with a unique home.
In a state that has embraced alternatives to the traditional classroom, 31 public charter schools have found themselves setting up shop in everything from a former plant nursery and pet store in Coeur d'Alene, to a strip mall in Garden City and former athletic center in Boise.
Together, the schools serve some 11,000 students. But unlike traditional public schools, they cannot get money from property taxpayers to buy buildings through bonds or levies.
"That is the largest financial challenge charter schools face," said Shirley Rau, school choice coordinator for the state Department of Education. "They are borrowing at the same rate as other nonprofit facilities."
Idaho charters, approved by a 1998 state law, operate with state money based on average daily student attendance, just like traditional public schools. But to raise money for property, teachers, parents and community members seek out investors or borrow from banks to buy facilities.
A third of Idaho charter schools started out in portable trailer classrooms, typically in rural areas of the state where facilities are harder to find, Rau said. Many of these charters have since purchased or built facilities, but some still operate from mobile classrooms.
"What you'll see is a big farm field with trailers," Rau said, adding that a charter school set to open next year in northern Idaho is "probably going to end up in a furniture store."
All but two of the 15 charter schools that own facilities did so with backing from investors, loans, heavy community fundraising and by saving chunks of state money they get based on student attendance.
"Most of this has happened in the last three years," Rau said. "They've only just been able to manage."
The Idaho Arts Charter School moved a new building this year after years of renting an old church and using nine trailers to hold nearly 600 students, grades K-12. The school is paying back a 30-year, $7.5 million loan from Wachovia Corp. used to buy the facility, said Jackie Collins, Idaho Arts Charter School director.
"There wasn't any area banks that were willing to take the risk," Collins said.
The Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy leased a former plant nursery and pet store for three years before buying the warehouse-style building, where 557 students in grades 6-12 wear uniforms and adhere to strict discipline codes as part of a rigorous college-prep program, said school business manager Glenn Mabile.
The school spent $1.5 million to expand and renovate.
"We don't think you have to build a big glorious building to give students a quality education," Mabile said. "The programs and the people come first, a building is secondary."
The Compass school found an investor to buy the Meridian church it used to rent from Ten Mile Christian and now has to pay back a $6 million loan. The church now pays the school rent and plans to move into a new facility next year.
In the meantime, the congregation makes sure to cover the communion table after each Sunday service.
"We have another church ready to move in. It will pay for our utilities," said Bridget Barrus, chairwoman of the board that governs Compass and one of the parents who founded it.
The 16 Idaho charters schools that do not own facilities either rent, lease or share while saving to buy a home.
The ANSER Charter School has held classes at a Boise athletic club since 1999. Racquetball courts were converted into classrooms. The gym blanketed with a musty smell takes up the center of the building and athletes as young as age 5 take classes there from Bronco Elite Arts and Athletics, sometimes while the ANSER school is in session.
The school spent about $450,000 remodeling the facility that holds about 200 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. They could enroll more so they could get more state funding to save toward a new building, but larger class sizes could also work against the mission of the school, said Principal Suzanne Gregg.
Charters are typically created with a specific purpose and in Idaho, range from an online school aimed at minority students to programs that emphasize music, art, dance and drama. ANSER has small classes designed to give students, who are required to participate in community-based projects, more attention.
The school is saving to buy a century-old building from the Boise School District and move out of the facility where they share an address with Bronco Elite.
"Unfortunately, we're investing money in a building we're only leasing," Gregg said.
The racquetball courts were split into skinny classrooms with tall ceilings, sound panels resembling egg carton prevent noise from leaking room to room. The kindergarten teacher snagged the only classroom with a sink.
In a school with no cafeteria, students picked up pizza in the office on a recent Friday and brought it back to their classrooms. Kids are bused to the local YMCA for PE class. Chalk dust used by athletes during gymnastics classes often covers the lockers and cubby holes that line the gymnasium.
"We've been here so long, this is just how we do school," Gregg said.
No comments:
Post a Comment