By Charlie Mahler
Arcadia Charter School executive director Laura Stelter recently discussed her school’s annual charter reauthorization and the unique relationship the Northfield area’s two charter schools – Arcadia and Prairie Creek Community School – have with the Northfield School district.
Stelter was a recent guest on KYMN’s In the Morning program.
“We are technically separate districts,” Stelter explained. “We are authorized by the Northfield Public Schools. They are the people who hold us accountable for the things we say we are going to do. Arcadia’s charter is all about project-based learning, so the Northfield Public Schools come in and check to see that we are doing what we say we are going to do in that charter.”
The Northfield School District is the only traditional Minnesota school district that authorizes charter schools.
During reauthorization, the school district visits each school to observe, talk to charter school officials, and gather data to answer four central reauthorization questions, namely:
- Is the educational program a success?
- Is the organization efficient and well-run?
- Is the school meeting its legal obligations?
- Are strategies in place for sustaining success and continuing to improve?
The observers take their determination to the Northfield School Board and the charter school executive directors present their own reports to the school board.
“Almost every student who attends one of the two charter schools at some point interacts with Northfield Public Schools,” Northfield superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann shared with KYMN recently. “In so many communities, the charter schools and the local traditional public schools are at loggerheads. We really collaborate and work together very well. “
Charter school reports were presented at last week’s school board meeting by the school visit observers, as well as Stelter and Prairie Creek executive director Simon Tyler.
“Arcadia is doing well,” Stelter said. “We are financially in a really strong position which I think is very important for a charter school. We had to make some really difficult cuts a couple of years ago.”
“Our staff is phenomenal; they do such good work,” she noted. “I think the school is doing really well because we have such phenomenal people involved. There are so many people who are really supporting. Our parent’s organization has really grown in the past couple of years … we have a board that’s really doing a nice job of oversight. They are working to become even stronger.”
Contact Charlie Mahler at news@kymnradio.net
