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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Learning Center Awaits OK

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
      Several members of the Estancia Valley Learning Center are hoping to open a new charter school in the Moriarty-Edgewood School District by July 2009 — if they are given the go-ahead by the New Mexico Public Education Department.
    Learning Center Counselor Alan Carson and Science Specialist Roy McConkey submitted an application to the Public Education Department charter school division to open The Resource and Learning Center Charter School year-round for children in grades 7 through 12. Math Specialist Jeff Dulaney is also behind the idea.
    "We will take the core model (of the learning center) into the charter school and then we will expand it," Carson said in a phone interview Monday.
    According to The Resource and Learning Center Charter School application, between 20,000 and 42,000 secondary students may drop out of school in New Mexico over the next four years. Carson said he and the others want to assist those students in completing their secondary education with something called the Individual Service Model.
    "The whole idea (of the learning center) is individualized education. In other words, you tell me what you want and we'll see what we can do to get that service back to you," Carson said.
    In a traditional school learning is tied to a semester, but not so at the learning center, Carson said.
    The Learning Center is within the Estancia Municipal School District and has been operating as a separate high school since July 2006. It opened three years before that as a program within Estancia High School, Carson said.
    A charter school is a public school developed by parents, teachers or community members, and authorized by the local school board or the Public Education Department to provide an alternative education within the public school system, according to the department's Web site.
    The Charter Schools Division is responsible for the implementation and oversight of charter schools.
    There are several reasons the three want to open the new school, Carson said.
    One reason is expansion of the program.
    "As long as we're inside the (Estancia) district we can't expand and provide services. We have additions we wanted to add to our program that would better serve our clientele. We proposed a program that would link us to universities but our district doesn't see that as a district need," Carson said.
    Another reason is convenience.
    At the moment the learning center teaches more than 70 students who do not reside within the Estancia District and that's a problem for those students, according to Carson.
    "We have 11 students coming out of Manzano High School. They're all honors students. Round trip it's 110 miles," Carson said.
    There will be a public meeting in Moriarty hosted by the commission sometime in August and the decision should be made by Sept. 15, Carson said.
    After that decision Carson will have until the beginning of July to open the doors of the new school.
   

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