{"id":121514,"date":"2014-02-28T00:50:30","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T07:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/charter-school-okd-with-conditions\/"},"modified":"2014-02-28T00:50:30","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T07:50:30","slug":"charter-school-okd-with-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/charter-school-okd-with-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Charter school OK\u2019d, with conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Carter\"
Carter<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A reluctant Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 school board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a local charter school application, pending four provisions.<\/p>\n

One by one, the seven school board members at Tuesday\u2019s meeting expressed concerns over the Children\u2019s Kiva Montessori Charter School application. All said they believed the charter school would place burdens on the district\u2019s fiscally strapped budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clearly going to hurt in a financial perspective,\u201d said board member Jack Schuenemeyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding is going to be diverted from the district,\u201d said board member Brian Demby.<\/p>\n

School board president Tim Lanier said he felt the board was cornered, citing the state has a history of overriding local opposition to charter school applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charter school has a great educational model, but I\u2019m in opposition due to the fiscal impacts it will have on the district,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Superintendent Alex Carter, the charter school could reduce district revenue by more than $200,000 in the first year. That lost revenue, he said, was equal to funding four new staff members.<\/p>\n

Despite the financial concerns, the Children\u2019s Kiva Montessori School application was approved for four years, pending four stipulations:<\/p>\n

A charter school contract must be negotiated by April 1.<\/p>\n

A signed lease for the Beech Street schoolhouse must be made by July 1.<\/p>\n

A majority of the charter\u2019s board of directors is prohibited from serving on the board of the existing Children\u2019s Kiva Preschool.<\/p>\n

The charter\u2019s recruitment, enrollment and retention plan must be submitted by April 1.<\/p>\n

Anna Cole, a Kiva board member spearheading the charter school effort, said organizers will achieve the district\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be able to meet the district\u2019s stipulations, no problem,\u201d said Cole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited,\u201d she added in response to the board\u2019s conditional approval. \u201cWe remain committed to working collaboratively with the Re-1 district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole said the Children\u2019s Kiva Montesorri Charter School would open this fall, serving a maximum of 64 children in grades K-6 in its first year. The school is expected to grow to include a middle school program and serve more than 100 students within three years, she said.<\/p>\n

Montessori instruction employs a hands-on collaborative approach to education that focuses on academics, combined with community participation, self-reliance, individual choice and mixed-grades settings where older students assist younger students.<\/p>\n

Charter schools must comply with academic and testing standards of the Colorado Department of Education.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharter schools have more flexibility in their curriculum than traditional schools, and it gives parents a choice,\u201d said Cole. \u201cIt is where Colorado is heading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Cole\u2019s leadership, the charter school has already secured a $560,000 grant for start up costs from the Colorado Charter School Program.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7-0, but is concerned about money<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[4343,13,216],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-121514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-elementary-schools","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121514"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=121514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}