Teacher Parent Synergy

Only a handful of people showed up at a Falcon School District 49 meeting Friday to hear about the possibility of a military charter school.

“We’re just beginning to explore the process,” said Kim McClelland, iConnect Zone innovation leader/assistant superintendent.

She said she had hoped for more attendees, but another session is scheduled this morning, and she has received  calls and emails from people who are interested but could not attend.

The four people at the meeting Friday included residents and representatives from Pikes Peak Community College and Colorado Charter School Institute.

“I think the concept has its merits,” said Kelle Stanley, a D-49 parent and school board candidate. “I just don’t want them to spend a lot of money on it right now.”

The district wants a committee of at least five people to focus on the project as more information is gathered and details are hammered out, McClelland said. The ideal committee will include educators, business and community leaders, parents with children in District 49, and individuals with military experience who are interested in education.

The district has been looking into the idea of a military charter school since at least May, when officials and a board member visited New Mexico Military Institute.

Two consultants hired by the district gave slightly more detailed presentations Friday than the report delivered to the school board in September that covered some of the basics.

Retired Army Brig. Gen. Rick Geraci, lead consultant, said school name, mission statement, honor code, admission guidelines, curriculum, outside activities and community relations are important decisions to make from the start, adding that funding not the first step in the process.

“You can’t move forward on this project until it is very well defined,” he said. “We have to make sure that whatever we put together will have a positive impact on students.”

Geraci said a military charter school is not a boot camp or a reform school for troubled youth.

“It is a military structured environment characterized by academic rigor, culture of discipline and positive leadership, and physical fitness,” he said.

Nationwide, only five military-structured schools are charter schools, said consultant Tom Kilkenney.

“The people putting this together are educators, not military,” Geraci said, adding that a military charter school would not be automatically tied to local military installations. A student who attends isn’t necessarily going to sign up for military service, he said.

The earliest the charter school could open would be 2013, with ninth and tenth graders. Additional grades would follow.

One person asked if students from other school districts would be able to attend. As a charter school, admission would be open to all those interested.

Stanley asked how long it can take to meet proposed numbers of about 100 students per grade.

Geraci said the time line depends on the community involvement and the leadership at the school, adding that if everything comes together well, it could build quickly and successfully.

“I think it’s very exciting,” said Joyce Schuck of the Charter School Institute. “I think you have a winning proposal.”

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