Thursday evening there will be a public hearing regarding the proposed Lake Bluff Charter School. I don’t recall there being one about the New Horizons Charter over at Shorewood High School, but I’m happy for them that things went comparatively quickly, quietly and with seemingly unanimous support. I guess it must be an apples and oranges kind of thing. Maybe it’s because this charter isn’t perceived to really fix anything or maybe it’s rocking the old boat reticence. As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. True enough; Shorewood Schools has been able to wave the big #1 foam finger for years now, but it is a new time for schools in America.
Charters are everywhere. It’s not the early days of freak-show schools run by Mercedes driving principals in store fronts. Go to the Wisconsin DPI website and see what Wisconsin has to offer almost everyplace but in Milwaukee County’s North Shore. There are charter schools for Direct Instruction, Montessori, Aviation, Arts, Technology, Science, International Studies, even Multiage…and the list goes on.
The proposed charter for Shorewood is not reaction to a fad, or phase, or whim. It would be a continuation of an already successful program that has been in existence for eight years. Hundreds of Shorewood families have been happy with multiage in both elementary schools. It is something that parents want and that the School Board says they intend to keep here. If it is a successful, wanted endeavor, then I sure don’t understand why we would thumb our noses at an opportunity to help it grow and evolve. When given the choice between approving a charter and bringing $350,000 into the district or not approving the charter, what is there to lose? While the grant money would not pay for staff, it could certainly pay for staff development, consultants, materials for the classrooms, and equipment that would either have to be purchased out of district money or just not considered at all. At this time, deliberation about which programs or people to cut in Shorewood Schools is in full swing. It’s probably a good time to be open-minded. We should take the charter for a test drive. See how it runs. It’s not a set in stone obligation, and certainly no one would want to continue something that is not a source of pride to the community. It may be a tough decision to make, but it’s not life and death. It’s a challenge that is manageable and could even be exciting in a community as forward thinking as we. The board will not lose control of its child; the umbilical is unbroken. Ultimately and rightly the power is in their hands. Those who giveth can ultimately taketh away.
