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Longtime WEAC member Dianne Lang of Appleton has been on the ground floor of charter school creation in her community.
Lang, a retired teacher who formerly served as president of the Appleton Education Association, said active participation by the AEA allowed charter schools to be created while at the same time addressing contract issues.
Charter schools are public schools that are allowed to waive state regulations to deliver their programs. Last year, Appleton offered 13 charter schools, ranging from a focus on the environment, to fine arts, to engineering. Approaches include Montessori, Core Knowledge and online virtual education.
Lang, a WEAC representative on the state superintendent’s charter school advisory committee and a member of the Wisconsin Charter School Association, will take her experience to members at large in October. She will be a presenter during the WEAC Convention October 25-26 at the Midwest Airlines Center and the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.
“The basic topic of the sessions is how associations and school districts can work together to create successful charter schools,” Lang said. She noted that the sessions are not promoting charter school growth, but what needs to be done to move forward and make the schools work for staff and students after the decision is made.
“This is an opportunity for members to learn and understand,” she said.
Another session will focus on WEAC members who were the driving force behind charter schools. “They’ll be there to talk about why they did it, what they did and what their school is like,” Lang said. “It is a good chance for our members to see what they are doing.”
Still another session on charter schools will focus on the grants available through the Department of Public Instruction.
While Lang has many examples of positive charter school experiences, she acknowledged that some aspects can be problematic. Last school year, 879 students (6% of the district's total enrollment of 15,228) open-enrolled to Appleton from outside the district. Among those open-enrolling into the district, 70% attended charter schools.
The myriad of issues surrounding charters and their place in Wisconsin public schools should be confronted head-on, Lang said, encouraging all members to find out more about how charters work. “A lot of people don’t really understand charters,” Lang said. “There are some questions I still haven’t resolved myself. But they are not going to go away. The best thing we can do is be a part of it and understand it, and hopefully have some control over it.”
Resource Page on Charter Schools
Posted October 10, 2007