Lafayette Charter School finds new sponsor

Enrollment up;

expansion planned

By KREMENA TODOROVA

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- With a new sponsor-to-be and soaring enrollment, the Lafayette Charter School (LCS) appears to have put the worries of its start-up years behind.

The GFW school district has announced its willingness to sponsor the school, LCS lead teacher Sheila Howk said on Tuesday. While a contract still needs to be written and accepted by both boards, all indications are "positive" that sponsorship will occur, according to both Howk and the GFW Superintendent Steve Malone.

Sponsorship had been expected to be the school's main issue, after the sponsor for the first four years, the New Ulm school district, declined to continue in that role citing insufficient administrative time, notes Howk. GFW's timely positive answer to LCS's inquiry, however, shifted the focus away from sponsorship and toward space concerns, Howk says.

Enrollment at the LCS increased 40 percent this fall, including 70 students at the main site in Lafayette and 17 students at its satellite, Hutterite colony site, Howk reports. Based on counts of kindergarten-age children, the school expects to add at least 10-15 new students next year, bringing enrollment to slightly above 100, the staff's current "comfort level."

To accommodate the anticipated growth, the building's private owner has agreed to speed up plans for expansion and will break ground this spring, Howk reported. The new construction will double the building's size, with four new classrooms, a full-size gym, new, wheelchair accessible bathrooms, a kitchen and a cafeteria. It will create the capacity to accommodate 150 students.

Howk attributes the school's success in part to a better public understanding of its role. While parents were originally wary of the charter school concept, they are becoming increasingly aware that charter schools are just another public-school alternative -- and, as such, do not drain funds away from the public school system, Howk says. Also, more people have realized that charter schools are about choice -- rather than just for students who fall through the cracks in "regular" schools. The LCS gives parents a more direct say in operating the school. It offers extra individual attention to students (no class is larger than 17) and tailors instruction to a student's personal, rather than grade, level. Other drawing cards are the year-long open enrollment and the strong focus on technology and agriculture.

The LFC has students in five multi-age classes: grades K-1; 2; 3-4; 4-5; and 6-8. The school employs 10 licensed teachers, three support staff and two drivers. This year, the school added a second bus and bus route and built a new greenhouse.

LCS and GFW officials note that GFW is a natural match for the sponsorship role required by state law. With a large percentage of LCS's students living in "GFW territory" and likely to continue their education at GFW, that school district has a stake in providing "curriculum, instructional and organizational management assistance" to LCS, says Malone. He acknowledges a financial interest as well. A sponsor receives a fee for providing administrative services, which would be of interest to a small school district.