“Growth linked to higher level of teaching flexibility
A new school designed for abused or abandoned children is the latest among a growing number of charter schools that have opened or plan to open in the Coachella Valley.
Father’s Heart Charter School expects to serve about 70 students when it opens Aug. 29 in Thousand Palms.
The free, public school is open to all, but was created for the boys at Father’s Heart Ranch — a group home near Sky Valley for 6- to 14-year-olds removed from their homes by Child Protective Services.
‘Because of their special needs, the school district can’t handle it,’ said Dave Underwood, a board member of the ranch and the school.
With the small classes and individualized education approach at Father’s Heart, teachers will have more time and resources for these students, who are often sent home from traditional public schools for behavior issues, he said.
Twenty of the school’s students are from the ranch, and there are about twice as many boys as girls enrolled.
The number of charter schools in the desert will have doubled — from four to eight — in three years when another, Imagine Schools, opens next fall. Another five schools brought petitions to local school districts and were denied.
The growth of charters is accelerating statewide. The 115 new schools that opened last year represented the largest single-year growth in the history of charter schools nationwide, according to the California Charter Schools Association.
Two of the four new charters that opened in Riverside County were in the Coachella Valley.
Olive Crest Academy in Coachella offers concurrent college and high school courses to typically at-risk high schoolers who are usually the first in their family to attend college.
Cielo Vista Charter in Palm Springs converted from a district-operated school to a charter.
‘It’s been a lot harder, a lot of extra work, but well worth it for what we’ve been able to offer for the students,’ Cielo Vista Principal Lynda Lake said.
Riverside and San Bernardino counties have been slower to join the charter movement than elsewhere in California, partly because the small number of charters made failures more visible, said Steven Holguin, the Inland Empire’s regional director for the California Charter Schools Association. . .”
Read the complete article published on August 7, 2011 by The Desert Sun