At Risk Students Focus of Proposal (Press Enterprise 061106) A charter School would let those who have been expelled get their education online...

It is good that the student that normally doesn't get a look has a second look reference getting their education over the Internet. Why not the children that give most of their problems that do not "conform" to the regular School Schedule get the chance to graduate in a different way. The original way of trying to get these kids to conform to the structure of the classroom. Why not let them sit in the outside or even better yet they pay their friend to do the class work for them, and they get a graduation slip, while their friend did all the work fro fear that they were going to get clobbered. Wow, that might be how I would have graduated instead of falling to sleep in the class all the time. I had seven Solids, plus I was taking four contract classes. Those are classes that are similar to what these are talking of over the computer. I completed actually one of the classes, and my friends completed the rest...So I say let the cheating begin!!

BSRancher...

At-risk students focus of proposal

BEAUMONT: A charter school would let those who have been expelled get their education online.

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, June 10, 2006

By ADAM C. HARTMANN
The Press-Enterprise

Chartering a Course A proposed online charter school in Beaumont would join fewer than 30 active charter schools in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Expulsions: 35 to 45 students a year in the Beaumont district. Students: 40 in the charter school. Cost: The school would start up with about $10,000. SOURCE: Beaumont Unified School District; California Department of Education; Bob Stranger

BEAUMONT - A computer -- maybe a laptop -- printer and Internet access, free of charge.

A teenager's dream come true, yes, but also tools for an online charter school that a former school trustee wants for Beaumont's expelled students.

The proposed Inland Charter School, a K-12 school that would start operation in the 2006-07 school year, could be approved by the Beaumont school board as soon as July 25.

Bob Stranger, a Yucaipa-Calimesa school district trustee for 24 years and a former assistant superintendent in the Hesperia and Colton districts, promotes the Beaumont charter school as a way to retain the district's at-risk students.

Charter schools receive state funding and must meet state requirements, but have a wide range of educational approaches and themes. The state Department of Education Web site lists 16 active charter schools in San Bernardino County and 11 in Riverside County, with one application pending in each county.

Other Pass-area charter schools have been pitched, without success. Last March, the Banning school board sharply criticized and ultimately rejected San Andreas Academy, a proposed charter school affiliated with a Carlsbad charter school management company.

Stranger said many students would respond better to an online environment.

"There's kids out there, I believe, brick and mortar just doesn't work for them," he said.

He approached Beaumont school officials and was impressed by their needs and their appetite for change.

"They're looking at some of the most at-risk kids in any system," Stranger said.

He said the Beaumont district administrators are "really an innovative group."

Mike Gordon, an assistant principal at two Yucaipa-Calimesa sites who has joined Stranger in the proposal, said Beaumont was a logical choice despite their Yucaipa-Calimesa ties.

"You go where people are usually interested," Gordon said.

Inland Charter School would serve about 40 kids at a time, 10 in elementary through middle school grades and about 30 in the high school grades, Stranger said.

He emphasized that the school, intended to be "a vehicle for students outside the system," would focus on expelled students and dropouts. It would not offer diplomas, but rather help credit-deficient students return to the traditional school environment, Stranger said.

He estimated it would require $10,000 to get started, which he would provide through a personal loan.

"That's my retirement money I'm putting on the line," Stranger said, laughing.

The school's projected budget shows $248,600 in annual revenues against expenditures of $224,400, with enough remaining to pay back the personal loan and leave 5 percent to 10 percent in a reserve fund, Stranger said. While the school would have money left over, it would not show a profit because it would be operated by a nonprofit corporation, he said.

The budget also includes Stranger's management fee, $8,000 to $10,000.

"I don't intend to do it for nothing, (but) it needs all the money it can get," Stranger said of the school's finances. "It's a startup enterprise ... they all struggle."

The elementary and middle students would use K12, an online curriculum in six core subjects for kindergarten through ninth-grade students, Stranger said. The high school students would take courses from and have a teacher provided by Apex Learning Systems, an accredited, Seattle-based company that offers courses for regular and advanced-placement students, he said.

Gordon, who would be the teacher of record for kindergarten through eighth-grade students, acknowledged the drawbacks of distance learning, such as ensuring that students expelled for behavioral problems have the discipline to do their work.

Solutions include monthly meetings in which Gordon would track students' progress, plus monitoring every keystroke they make on their school-issued computers, Gordon said.

"You've got that safety net where the computer keeps track of those things," Gordon said.

A major benefit of distance learning is individualizing instruction in a way that face-to-face classes can't, he said.

"You're not meeting with 20 students at once, or 35 or 36," Gordon said.

Nicolas Ferguson, Beaumont's interim superintendent, said he was receptive because the district has a responsibility to help expelled students.

Beaumont Unified typically expels 35 to 45 students a year, mostly middle schoolers, said Karen Poppen, assistant superintendent of instructional support services.

The proposed school would be a dependent charter, meaning it would be managed by the district, Ferguson said. Stranger must get school-board approval and the charter must meet the same standards as any district school, Ferguson said.

The proposed charter school could keep students in the district, which would be a welcome change, he said. Currently, sites in Banning and Moreno Valley are the nearest options for Beaumont's expelled students, Ferguson said.

"What happened in the old days -- you're expelled, you're just gone," Ferguson said.

Reach Adam C. Hartmann at 951-846-2302 or ahartmann@PE.com