Board approves charter school

MAT-SU -- A charter school designed for homeschoolers is once again on the Mat-Su Valley's horizon.

The Mat-Su school board last week in a unanimous vote gave its blessing to Horizon Charter School, a program that would provide guidance to families who teach their children at home. The group of parents and teachers must now take their application to the Alaska State Board of Education for final approval.

If approved at the state level, the Horizon Charter School would open next fall with an estimated 200 students. All of the school's $640,000 budget would come from per-student state funding, and organizers say that by attracting students who are not currently enrolled in Mat-Su schools they will actually bring more money into the district.

"We feel like our proposal … would fit well with programs existing in the district," Tereasa Hansen, chair of Horizon's Academic Policy Committee, told the board.

Last summer, the Mat-Su school board rejected Horizon's application but was quick to point out that it was primarily a matter of timing -- the charter school organizers were then requesting a deadline waiver so that they could open in the fall with just a few months of preparation. The majority of board members said they felt it was too important of a process to rush.

At the same time, the district seemed to be interested in pursuing homeschoolers through its existing correspondence school. Some

district officials argued that the correspondence school was already offering the services proposed by Horizon Charter.

"I think it's redundant," Steve Levine, principal of the district's correspondence school, told the Frontiersman at the time.

In order to better serve families, however, the district expanded its correspondence school to include a new kindergarten-through-12th-grade program designed specifically for homeschoolers.

At last week's meeting, some board members wanted to know if Horizon Charter would create an unnecessary overlap with this and other existing programs.

But Interim Superintendent Bob Doyle said he didn't feel it would be a problem. He pointed out that an estimated 1,700 Mat-Su students are still attending private or out-of-district schools, and taking with them state funding that could stay in the Mat-Su school district.

"I think there's room for lots of flexibility in our programs," Doyle said.

Two Horizon Charter parents at the meeting told the board that individualized educational plans, the personalized interaction with teaching staff, the focus on flexibility rather than paperwork and the ability to recruit students living in other districts would all make their program different from what the district is offering now.

Horizon organizers have also assured the administration and board that they do not intend to recruit students from other programs in the district, but instead provide assistance to those students who are currently working on their own or with distance learning programs offered by other districts. If anything, the instructors have said, they plan to help students transition into regular district classrooms if that is what they are interested in.

"It's an option, just like there are many other options," Horizon teacher Yolanda Paez told the board earlier this year. "We're not out there to say, 'We want your students.'"

If approved by the state, Horizon Charter School would become the Mat-Su school district's third charter school, including The Academy and Midnight Sun Family Learning Center. When Alaska's charter school legislation was originally enacted, the Mat-Su school district was granted just three openings but now has the flexibility to open more charter schools if there is interest.