by Tim Gillie
STAFF WRITER
The State Board of Education approved the application for the first-ever charter school in Tooele County last Friday.
Excelsior Academy, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, is now scheduled to open in the fall of 2009. The school will be built in Erda just southwest of the LDS Chapel there, according to Ann Gubler, the leader of the parents group that proposed the new school.
"Now there is no stopping us," said Gubler, a Tooele resident. "We have about a year to get the school built, the faculty hired and everything ready."
The group has an offer from a developer who will build the school building and then lease it back to the school. Gubler anticipates the building will be about the same size as one of Tooele's new elementary schools.
The organizing committee under the leadership of Gubler is conducting a search for an experienced administrator. The administrator in turn will hire the faculty. It is typical to open a charter school with new teachers right out of college, said Gubler. She does not anticipate hiring many experienced teachers away from the Tooele County School District, largely because the charter school cannot offer the same retirement benefits the district can.
The charter application submitted by Excelsior Academy stresses that through individualized instruction, tutoring, and small class sizes students will have the opportunity to learn at their own pace in individual subjects. That includes both help for students that are struggling in some subjects as well as opportunities for gifted and talented students to accelerate at their own pace.
Excelsior Academy will follow a comprehensive core curriculum based around the core knowledge as outlined by the Utah State Office of Education, according to Gubler. In each grade students will be exposed to a broad range of historical, scientific and cultural topics.
The charter school will also provide greater opportunities for parental involvement in management decisions at the school level, according to the application.
Charter schools are publicly funded schools. Parents do not pay tuition or fees as with a private school. Enrollment at charter schools is open to all students. If the enrollment requests outnumber the available seats in the charter school, a lottery is held to determine admission. Excelsior Academy's charter allows it to accept 648 students.
"We wish them the best and will be supportive in any way that we can," said Mike Johnsen, Tooele County School District superintendent, commenting on the new charter school.
"The traditional public schools are effective for many students, but for some they are not," Gubler said. "Providing children another means of obtaining an education benefits our children and the community."
tgillie@tooeletranscript.com