With doors opening for students in just a few weeks, Director Cynthia Sherar has been hard at work to prepare Aspen Academy Charter School for its inaugural year.
After being approved by the Minnesota Department of Education nearly two years ago, classes are slated to begin Sept. 2.
But before the school opened its doors, parents were asking for more. When the idea for the school was initially proposed, it was to be an education center for kindergarten through second grade students.
"We had so much parent interest; we have enough students for third grade classes," Sherar said. Some parents were even asking for fourth grade classes. "We decided to cut it off at third grade. We need to open, do a good job and get our school up and running."
Although within the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District, the charter school is a district of its own and is geographically located in Savage on the Prior Lake border in Bethesda Church (old Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church) at the corner of 150th Street and Highway 13.
"We need to provide educational choice, we need to do something that's different. What we offer is the Core Knowledge Curriculum," Sherar said.
Nearly at capacity, with about 145 students, the interest in the school is largely due to the adopted curriculum, Sherar said.
The Core Knowledge curriculum is a comprehensive way of learning, by incorporating subject areas throughout lesson plans. For example, Sherar said, if students are reading Greek myths in literature, they would likely study corresponding Grecian history in their history class. It also prevents overlapping topics, gaps or re-teaching from one year to the next.
"Parents have come to me and said this is exactly what they were looking for, for their children," she said. "They wanted something just like this."
In a renewal grant sent to the state, Sherar requested eight Smart Boards for each of the classrooms. Smart Boards are interactive electronic boards networked through a computer used to enhance learning and engage students. (For a short video of a presentation of the technology, log onto www.savagepacer.com.) While the funding won't officially be available until October, Sherar said all indications are the Smart Boards will be installed in the classrooms in November.
"They were the biggies," she said of the Smart Boards in the grant renewal. Computers were also in the grant. Curriculum, materials and people costs were the other components.
The teaching staff at Aspen includes eight classroom teachers and four specialists to teach physical education, art, music and Spanish.
As an independent district, the school is under the same requirements as all other public schools. Students will take the MCA-II tests, teachers will be licensed and the school will report to the state.
But, there will be some differences between Aspen Academy and other public schools.
For starters, students will be required to wear uniforms of khaki pants with a white or green polo shirt. Girls also have an option of wearing a plaid jumper paired with the green or white shirts.
"School is their job and these are their work clothes," Sherar said of the uniform reasoning. "It also takes away the distraction of what they're wearing and who's got what."
Also, the proverbial first ride on the big yellow school bus won't be a reality for kindergarteners on the first day of school, or any student on any day, as there is no transportation provided.
Aspen Academy has asked parents to sign a waiver for transportation and provide a ride to and from the school on their own.
"The average charter school spends $200 to $225 per student on curriculum because we've asked the parents to sign a waiver, we can spend four times that on curriculum," Sherar said. "That's not going into overhead, salaries or development, but into curriculum for the kids."
For some parents that will mean a trip to and from as far as Farmington to the southwest side of Savage. Sherar said students hail from Lakeville, Farmington, Burnsville, Eagan, Apple Valley, Shakopee as well as Prior Lake and Savage.
The school's location is also different from other public schools, it's in Bethesda Church.
"We are leasing space from them, but we are totally separate from their organization," Sherar said.
When the decision about the school's location was decided, the church already had plans to build an addition, so Aspen's interest in the location simply moved those plans up a few years. The lease will be up in three years and Sherar said the current plan is for Aspen to have its own building at some point.
Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.