• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Rancho Colorado School Debated; Some Want Charter; District Wants Traditional School

Posted on: Sunday, 4 December 2005, 03:00 CST

By SHARI CHANEY GRIFFIN THE GAZETTE

Everyone agrees residents of the Rancho Colorado area need their own school, but they disagree over how to get one.

Some Rancho Colorado and Midway residents want a charter school serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and Hanover School District 28 is considering a traditional K-6 elementary school.

Many of the people who spoke at a public hearing Tuesday about the proposed Rolling Hills Charter Academy said a school was promised in their neighborhood as part of a $10.4 million bond issue passed in 2002.

Superintendent Henry Roman said roughly $2.5 million has been set aside to build an elementary school. There has been discussion about putting the school in Rancho Colorado, he said, but a location was not specified in the ballot question.

At Tuesday's public hearing, board President Jim Tyler said the money is available to build a school, but the district might not be able to pay for operating expenses such as utilities and teachers.

Roman said the district is looking at using portable classrooms at Hanover Elementary School for a K-2 school. If there are enough students, more grades would be added and eventually a permanent school building would be built with the bond money, he said.

Rancho Colorado resident Ann Campos said homeschooled students and others going outside the district could be drawn to Rolling Hills Charter Academy because it would be in their neighborhood and would provide a high-quality education.

Hanover School District has recently been removed from being on accreditation probation because of poor test scores.

The charter school would use Core Knowledge curriculum, which has been used in other successful charter schools. Core Knowledge requires students to learn specific information in each grade and builds each year on prior knowledge.

Rolling Hills Charter Academy supporters say parental involvement would improve if there were a school in the community. With the community of Rancho Colorado more than 25 miles away from Hanover schools, it's hard for parents to be involved.

The distance is a problem for students, as well, as they spend nearly six hours a week riding the bus to and from school, Campos noted.

A charter school in Rancho would not only be more accessible for families, Stahnke said, it would make sure parents were involved by requiring a certain number of volunteer hours from parents.

A school in the Rancho Colorado community would also provide a place for community meetings and could even grow to hold a community library, charter-school advocate Linda Stahnke has said.

"It creates a place for all of that," she said in an interview last week.

The district is committed to putting a school in Rancho Colorado, Roman said before the public hearing on Tuesday, when it's financially feasible. But, he said, a charter may just be too costly for the district.

Hanover has a total budget of $3 million, Roman said; each student means more than $8,000 in state money for the rural district.

If Rolling Hills Charter Academy enrolls even 40 students -- half of what it expects to enroll -- it would be a loss of more than $320,000 to the district.

The district has already had to deal with rising fuel costs -- "Diesel is still going up," Roman said -- declining enrollment and an increase in special education costs.

The Hanover school board is expected to make a decision about Rolling Hills Charter Academy at its regular board meeting on Dec. 13. If the district denies the charter-school application, the issue can be appealed to the state.

Source: Gazette, The; Colorado Springs, Colo.

More News in this Category