Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments consideringCharter school at risk - losing funding

I am looking at a free gifted school K-6. They are intending to expand to 8th Grade. 120 students are currently enrolled. They are a charter school that was just formed and are at risk for losing their funding. Academics sound wonderful. 127 IQ to be accepted.

I have lots of concerns:
If I sent my children there and the school folded this would make regular school worst. If I knew he could homeschool if the school folded that would be fine but that's not a option.

any thoughts or advice on this?

My feeling is always to go with what works for the moment. This a PG or near PG child, 6 good months is a victory, let along a whole year. If you leave him in a bad situation, he may conclude that school isn't for learning. When he is older, he may no longer want to 'learn in school' anyways. There are lots of interesting things to do in school besides learn academics - some of these things build character, and some destroy it.

Just go into it knowing that a school that make the cut off at 127 is going to have the majority of it's students between 127 and 134, which is still a long long way away from what would seem normal to your son, but still a lot closer than where he is now. There may be a teacher there is open minded and that will make all the difference. It seems so simple to find out here the child is, and then met their needs, but in reality, it is difficult, and takes trial and error.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

I'm with Grinity. Not choosing a good option because it might not last forever never makes sense to me.

With that said, I guess it makes a difference just *how* at-risk they are for losing funding. Are we talking tomorrow, or "maybe someday?"

It's my sense that many private/charter schools are barely making it, but they can be barely making it for decades. I don't think that would faze me. However, if you have reason to think they might actually lose funding tomorrow, I'd be a bit more circumspect about it.

I think Grinity also raises a good point about how good a fit the school will be. Be aware that some GT schools (or programs) can actually be LESS flexible with HG+ kids. Be sure the attitude isn't "This is our program: take it or leave it."

All GT is not the same. If the school doesn't get that, it could be worse for your son, not better.

(If the school does get it, of course, then it may be an amazing school experience! I didn't want to sound all negative. )

Two years ago, I enrolled DS in a public charter school that was just formed for a couple years. It advertised itself as using GATE curriculum to teach kids, but anyone could apply. It is a district charter school (as opposed to the state charter school). The district was hostile to that charter school and it was folded a year later. The next year, some of the teachers formed a school, so we went with them. Because it was a new school, school operation was horrible. They did not have time to train new teachers. The teacher he had was horrible. She did not like gifted kids at all. Now we are homeschooling.

Also, you might want to ask them if they are open to subject acceleration and grade skipping. The original charter school I was in, they believe that since they brought the curriculum down to the student to meet their level, they were against subject acceleration and grade skipping. They really only served the HG community.

I don't have much advice. I am sure some people have better luck than we did.

My first question is how do you know they're at risk for losing funding?

I say this because I've been a charter school employee for over 10 years now and my son also attends a charter school. The pervasive rumor in the district is that both of these schools are about to fold and at risk for losing funding! It's all gossip and rumor, none of it is based in reality. In fact, both schools have a healthy reserve beyond what the other public schools have.

Beyond that, if they are preparing an expansion, it's unlikely that they are getting ready to fold. In most states, charter schools have to have permission either from the district or the state to expand and modify the charter. Most places wouldn't authorize an expansion if funding was in question.

I called the school and they said they are at risk to lose their funding but I'm not sure how big the risk is? Is there away to ask? or research? I think they are open to being up front about this. They were a different school 2?years ago. The some parents reformed it in a new location and a new name. I think I need to find out more about this.

They seem open to accellorating kids thru work as quick as needed filling in the wholes. Maybe it would be worth it just getting him to where he needs to be with the wholes filled in even if it was for a year. They said they have several levels of groups for different subjects within each grade. They have kids that go up a grade in subjects while the grades are already working above grade level. They have not had any students working on HS level yet. They said it's something they will address. This seems a bit of a concern because when he gets to 6 grade my DS would probally do Hs Math work - I think? Right now his is in 3rd doing 4th grade math but it feels like he should be doing a condensed 5th at least. They seem to do local science center and arts for field trips which is wonderful.
They do lego legaue. No sports teams.

He could stay with his age group and do above level work. I'm not sure yet how above level. But they said they are flexible to meet the child's needs. The woman I spoke to said they have not heard of DYS.

Ask to see their budget if it's not on their website. That should give you a good indication how uncertain things are looking.

Do you Think 140 IQ is far from this? (I was not sure if you had his score.) His only bigger DYS IQ score was 146 GIA.

I wonder if I can find out about student retention? How much of the other school remains with teachers/staff? What make them lose a charter? budget cuts? performance?

Are they a public charter? If so, then yes, you can ask all those questions and they should be able to tell you. There are tons of reasons a school loses a charter but the most common is budgetary problems. Second would be inability to follow state set standards or inability to meet academic goals. Sometimes an independent study charter looses it's charter for failure to follow state law. But this is pretty rare in a classroom setting.