Charter High School Proposed For Casper

Flexibility and student Centered; Two words used to describe a public charter high school pitched to Natrona County School District this week.   Ktwo Radio's Karen Snyder has details...

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The tuition free public charter school would, according to John Bullock, for Personalized Learning, Inc. out of Oregon, offer a student a self designed course of study and accelerated learning options with the working title, "Proficiency Academy of Casper".  "Our interest is in bringing a proficiency Academy to Casper and so we're here this week to generate community support and to begin the process of applying."

Bullock says the educational design would build preparation for college and would demand student responsibility. "In the Proficiency Academies we've designed students are responsible for their learning. We can not forced students to learn something that they're not engaged with so we create environments where students help design the learning so they're motivated by it and they develop the skills of learning,"

The idea for Casper, Bullock says, would follow a model used in the community of Redmond Oregon, a community, Bullock says, that's very similar to Casper.

Natrona County School District's Associate Superintendent, Mark Mathern, says Tuesday's meeting was a first step and they await details on the proposal.

" I do know that  in Redmond it's a fairly popular program there and they've actually increased their enrollment from somewhere around 200 to 350.  I'm looking forward to reading there application and to see how it might fit in here."

For a charter school to be successful they must demonstrate local public demand.

Mathern understands the group intends to target the home school population first off.

He says the federal government has dollars designated for charter schools that could be applied for should the community indicate they're interested.