{"id":1314276,"date":"2019-09-04T19:30:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=987117"},"modified":"2019-09-04T19:30:46","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:30:46","slug":"district-compact-with-area-charter-schools-aimed-at-better-coordination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/district-compact-with-area-charter-schools-aimed-at-better-coordination\/","title":{"rendered":"District compact with area charter schools aimed at better coordination"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Colored pencils adorn a classroom at Ross Montessori School in Carbondale.<\/strong>
File photo\/provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A compact between the Roaring Fork School District and several area charter schools has not only improved inter-school relations, but could make it easier for parents when it comes to school choice.<\/p>\n

One outcome of the three-year effort to improve collaboration among the schools \u2014 whether they operate under the school district, or not \u2014 is the ongoing development of a common timeline for enrollment each year.<\/p>\n

Once in place, it should help families make decisions within a consistent timeline before the start of each school year. That also provides the district and charter school some certainty about student enrollment once school starts, said Rob Stein, superintendent of the Roaring Fork Schools.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s now being referred to as the Roaring Fork Valley Community of Schools Compact began in 2016 when leaders from schools in the area began meeting as a means to improve collaboration.<\/p>\n

The group included representatives from the school district that serves the Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Basalt communities, the lone charter school that operates in partnership with the district, Carbondale Community School, and two Colorado Charter School Institute schools \u2014 Ross Montessori in Carbondale and Two Rivers Community School in Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the Marble Charter School also participated. The K-8 charter school operates under the Gunnison School District but serves an area that\u2019s within the Carbondale schools attendance area.<\/p>\n

The effort was funded through a grant from the Denver-based Gates Foundation.<\/p>\n

While there had been a history of animosity between the district and charter schools in the past, the compact talks have resulted in a meeting of minds on some issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne area that has been hard is the enrollment process,\u201d Stein said during a recent school board meeting, adding that sometimes families would enroll in one school while awaiting the outcome of a lottery for a charter school, and then switching.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed enrollment process to be discussed and implemented by the end of this school year, the schools would be better able to share information and collectively manage that process, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does reduce the uncertainty in the enrollment system, and makes for a better mutual understanding,\u201d Stein said.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, \u201cwe view all the kids in the district as \u2018ours,\u2019 and most will be eventually,\u201d Stein said of the transition from middle to high school. All of the charter schools currently end at eighth grade.<\/p>\n

What school board member Mary Elizabeth Geiger referred to as an \u201cacrimonious\u201d relationship in the past, \u201c\u2026 at the end of the day, that doesn\u2019t serve the kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision is to become a thriving and diverse network of public schools that meet the educational needs of every child in our community and where students and families feel a sense of belonging,\u201d reads a vision statement that grew out of the process to date.<\/p>\n

Jamie Nims, head of the Two Rivers Community School in Glenwood, said the compact talks have, in part, directed the school\u2019s decision to seek re-chartering under the school district, rather than the state. The school is applying concurrently<\/a> this fall with both the state and the district for reauthorization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several benefits to us having a local authorizer,\u201d Nims said at last week\u2019s school board meeting, where the compact and Two Rivers\u2019 pending application were discussed.<\/p>\n

The compact gets into some of the areas where shared resources between the traditional district schools and charter schools could be considered.<\/p>\n

Those could include the provision of services such as special education and second-language students, professional development for teachers and staff, and access to school-based health centers and family resources.<\/p>\n

jstroud@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colored pencils adorn a classroom at Ross Montessori School in Carbondale.File photo\/provided A compact between the Roaring Fork School District and several area charter schools has not only improved inter-school relations, but could make it easier for parents when it comes to school choice. One outcome of the three-year effort to improve collaboration among the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 23:29:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}