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In Cornville, charter school group wants local control

By Doug Harlow dharlow@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

CORNVILLE -- A group seeking to transform the closed Cornville Elementary School into a charter school wants to kick it old school.

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LOCAL INTEREST: There is an effort to use the vacant former Cornville Elementary School as a charter school. From left are Sam Jencks; Justin Belanger holding his children, Aiden and Adelle; Julie Cooke with her children, Natalie and Annie; and Laurie Hayden.

Staff photo by David Leaming

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Literally.

"Excuse the pun, but I like it because it seems more old school," said Julie Cooke, a mother of two, who home-schools her children. "I like the idea of going to back to serve the more basics of education in a small school. The biggest loss at the Cornville school closing was just the idea that smaller schools were closing in general."

Cooke, along with nearly 20 other residents, is a member of the Friends of Cornville Regional Charter School. The group hopes to establish a school where general education specialists are joined by local farmers, carpenters, knitters and paper mill workers, teaching their children in a quiet rural setting.

Old school style.

Cornville residents will vote on the future of the closed school in a referendum on March 4 and possibly at the annual town meeting the next day.

A charter school is one that receives public money -- state, local and federal -- but is created and operated by local parents, teachers and community leaders, free of the rules and regulations of the area school district. Charter schools are public schools, open to all regional students with no tuition fees or admissions tests.

Such a school would have to meet established criteria for student performance or face being shut down by their "authorizers," Belanger said. Authorizers could be local school boards, as well as public or private colleges with an education program.

Maine currently is one of 10 states that do not allow charter schools, but Gov. Paul LePage has expressed his support for legislation that would allow them in Maine, said group spokesman Justin Belanger, also a home-school parent. He said local taxes will not increase with a charter school.

All district schools would be funded as they are now with the "money following the child," Belanger said.

A charter school law sponsored by the Maine Association for Charter Schools would set up a system of schools that receive public funding for each student, along with federal start-up money specifically for charter schools, according to a published report.

The Cornville school was closed by the Skowhegan-based School Administrative District 54 board and a town vote last June. There were 95 students enrolled there in kindergarten through grade 6.

"A charter school is school choice, a charter school is autonomy -- the teachers have the power over the curriculum and the teachers, parents and the community have autonomy over such things as the length of the school day, the length of the school year and curriculum," Belanger said.

Belanger said some members of Maine's teachers' unions, school boards' association and the principals' association have come out against charter schools because they feel a charter school would sap money from the organized school district.

Other members of those three groups favor the concept as a way to be more flexible than traditional public schools, for such ideas as year-round classes and nontraditional teaching methods.

"On Dec. 16, when I went down to the national charter school meeting, there were a dozen superintendents from other districts that were interested in starting charter schools to help kids that are out of the mainstream a little bit and that might drop out," Belanger said. "They saw that as a good way to bring money into their districts."

Group member Laurie Hayden said she has driven her two children to the Canaan Elementary School since the Cornville school closed.

"I've talked with quite a few parents and we have 40 guaranteed kids coming and that's just talking to the few parents that we know want this really bad," Hayden said. "We're guaranteed 40 enrollment for 2012, at least, and that's enough money to run the school."

Cornville resident and group member Sam Jencks said he supports the charter school concept because it encourages individuality among students and allows them to pursue subjects that interest them in a way that they best can learn.

"In regular public schools, there's no room for individuality -- it's like, 'Here's the curriculum, here's what you have to do.' You either make it or start falling through the cracks," Jencks said. "I think with charter schools it's about dealing with the kids in the areas where they are weak and strong and give them practical life skills, which a public school can't offer."

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534

dharlow@centralmaine.com