President Blaine Brownell approved the sponsorship of twocharter schools Friday, adding to the other nine already sponsoredby Ball State University.
The schools, which will open next fall, are The Rural CommunityAcademy in Graysville and The Life Skills Center of Gary.
The Rural Community Academy is designed to use place-basedlearning — a concept that uses community surroundings toteach Indiana standards — in its curriculum. It plans to openwith 90 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
The Life Skills Center in Gary will recruit high school dropoutsbetween the ages of 16 and 21. Its goal will be to meet the needsof nontraditional high school students who are likely to enter thework force after graduation.
"With their innovative curricula and missions, these schools fitvery nicely into Ball State's statewide network of public charterschools," Brownell said.
The schools' proposals were evaluated for strong communitysupport and engaging educational programs, as well as finances andfacilities. Public hearings were held for both schools to seekcommunity feedback.
"We were extremely pleased with the review process," MartyDezelan, director of Ball State charter schools, said.
Dezelan said the entire charter school process was explained tothe audience along with an explanation of the proposal for thecharter school that would be located in that town. The audiencethen had a chance to ask questions and make comments. About 55people attended the meeting in Gary and about 200 people attendedin Graysville.
Dezelan said Brownell denied sponsorship to a third charterschool: The Good Citizens' School in Richmond. The school, whichwould have used multi-age grouping in its curriculum, was deniedbecause the makeup of its governing board was not what Ball Statewould have preferred. About 100 people attended the public hearingto discuss that school.
The Indiana General Assembly approved legislation in 2001allowing four-year public universities, public school districts andthe mayor of Indianapolis to sponsor charter schools. Since then,Ball State is the only university in Indiana to sponsor a charterschool, but it has done so while confronting criticism from otherorganizations in the state -- most vocally from the Fort WayneCommunity Schools. Thomas Fowler-Finn, now the formersuperintendent of the Fort Wayne school district, at one pointbanned university faculty from evaluating student teachers in hisdistrict after Ball State sponsored a charter school in FortWayne.
Dezelan said that criticism is beginning to disappear becausemore people are beginning to understand the value of charterschools.
"The grassroots support is starting to grow," Dezelan said.
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