Chino Valley charter supporters ask board to approve their school
Author: Neil Nisperos , Staff Writer
After months of planning, supporters of a new charter school in the Chino Valley asked the school board to approve the new academy at the now-closed Los Serranos Elementary School site in Chino Hills.
Purple-shirted supporters implored Chino Valley Unified district boardmembers during a public hearing Thursday to support the charter proposal. They hope to open the tuition-free K-8 Oxford Preparatory Academy for about 650 students by September 2010.
The board is expected to vote on the matter at its Dec. 10 meeting.
Among those calling for district support is Sue Roche, the principal of Rhodes Elementary School in Chino, the school with the district's highest API score. She said many of the founding members of the charter school have children at Rhodes.
"This is a wonderful idea for the area," Roche said. "First it offers our parents a choice, and it gives parents the opportunity to consider a revolutionary education and endeavoring and embarking upon a new concept new for this area and to make a difference in the lives of children free from the bureaucracy in school districts."
Roche was joined in the public hearing by her former assistant principal Jason Watts, now assistant principal at Chaparral Elementary School. Both said the new school would have more autonomy to implement needs and resources desired by the school community, normally slowed and hindered by red tape.
"Let's say we have students that have specific needs or exhibiting symptoms that can be diagnosed as autism," said Watts, who hopes to administer the new school with Roche.
"We want to buy resources to address these students' needs in the classroom and instead of taking months, we can just buy it and have those students needs addressed immediately. When we feel we need to meet the needs of students, we don't feel there should be a time delay."
Roche agreed.
"This frees us up from the bureaucracy to really focus on what schools should be about - the education of children," she said. "Every aspect of the educational program is centered on the students."
Education at the new school would also be based on the theory of multiple intelligences, which Roche said she had success with in top-scoring district schools like Country Springs and Rhodes elementaries.
The theory, created by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner and furthered by educators, suggests students learn better when their education is focused using the student's preferred way of learning new things, whether it be musically, physically, verbally, visually, among others.
"Multiple Intelligences is a way to teach students using their strengths," Watts said. "Maybe students have a great talent in music, so we present lessons and instruction to students based on the way they learn."
Roche said she expects to hire "top gun" teachers with the best credentials and these teachers would expect better pay and better job security than district teachers who face the danger of layoffs from state education cuts.
"They must be fully credentialed and held to the same standards in a public school system, but they also need to fully buy into our program and learn what it takes for our multiple intelligence format," she said.
Supporters proposed Oxford Preparatory Academy to open at Los Serranos, which was closed in June with two other district schools as part of budget cuts.
Boardmember Michael Calta said Friday he was inclined to support the charter school because its petition answers many of the contractual issues an earlier petition failed to address, though he said he thinks the closed El Rancho Elementary School in Chino would be a better location.
"It's more centrally located and an opportunity for El Rancho students because of the closure to have access to a neighborhood school," Calta said.
neil.nisperos @inlandnewspapers.com
(909) 483-9356
Purple-shirted supporters implored Chino Valley Unified district boardmembers during a public hearing Thursday to support the charter proposal. They hope to open the tuition-free K-8 Oxford Preparatory Academy for about 650 students by September 2010.
The board is expected to vote on the matter at its Dec. 10 meeting.
Among those calling for district support is Sue Roche, the principal of Rhodes Elementary School in Chino, the school with the district's highest API score. She said many of the founding members of the charter school have children at Rhodes.
"This is a wonderful idea for the area," Roche said. "First it offers our parents a choice, and it gives parents the opportunity to consider a revolutionary education and endeavoring and embarking upon a new concept new for this area and to make a difference in the lives of children free from the bureaucracy in school districts."
Roche was joined in the public hearing by her former assistant principal Jason Watts, now assistant principal at Chaparral Elementary School. Both said the new school would have more autonomy to implement needs and resources desired by the school community, normally slowed and hindered by red tape.
"Let's say we have students that have specific needs or exhibiting symptoms that can be diagnosed as autism," said Watts, who hopes to administer the new school with Roche.
"We want to buy resources to address these students' needs in the classroom and instead of taking months, we can just buy it and have those students needs addressed immediately. When we feel we need to meet the needs of students, we don't feel there should be a time delay."
Roche agreed.
"This frees us up from the bureaucracy to really focus on what schools should be about - the education of children," she said. "Every aspect of the educational program is centered on the students."
Education at the new school would also be based on the theory of multiple intelligences, which Roche said she had success with in top-scoring district schools like Country Springs and Rhodes elementaries.
The theory, created by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner and furthered by educators, suggests students learn better when their education is focused using the student's preferred way of learning new things, whether it be musically, physically, verbally, visually, among others.
"Multiple Intelligences is a way to teach students using their strengths," Watts said. "Maybe students have a great talent in music, so we present lessons and instruction to students based on the way they learn."
Roche said she expects to hire "top gun" teachers with the best credentials and these teachers would expect better pay and better job security than district teachers who face the danger of layoffs from state education cuts.
"They must be fully credentialed and held to the same standards in a public school system, but they also need to fully buy into our program and learn what it takes for our multiple intelligence format," she said.
Supporters proposed Oxford Preparatory Academy to open at Los Serranos, which was closed in June with two other district schools as part of budget cuts.
Boardmember Michael Calta said Friday he was inclined to support the charter school because its petition answers many of the contractual issues an earlier petition failed to address, though he said he thinks the closed El Rancho Elementary School in Chino would be a better location.
"It's more centrally located and an opportunity for El Rancho students because of the closure to have access to a neighborhood school," Calta said.
neil.nisperos @inlandnewspapers.com
(909) 483-9356
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