The mission of each Springs Charter School is to empower students by fostering their innate curiosity, engaging their parents, and promoting optimum learning by collaboratively developing a personalized learning program for each student.
Students at Citrus Springs Charter School in Santa Ana have been fully immersed in hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) projects that have “ignited their curiosity and fostered their creativity, reported Priscilla Doorbar, principal. From designing and building robots to exploring the principles of coding, she continued, “our students are actively engaging in real world problem solving and collaboration.”
Journey Homeschool High School students Grace Dwinnell, Abianne Park, Anais Park, Amanda Quezada, and Jessica VanOrman were recognized at a National Honor Society (NHS) Awards ceremony, reported Vice Principal Erin Riley.
Citrus Springs Charter Schools Principal Priscilla Doorbar reported that students kicked off their STEM program with a field trip to the Discovery Cube in Santa Ana. Students grades K-8 are learning about such topics as conservation of matter, light and shadow, the substance reaction of oil and water and other matter, and whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.
Ava Radach, an 8th-grade student in Springs’ Venture Online program, is a successful competitive dancer who trains 14 hours per week and earns straight A’s. Ava, 14, is part of the Temecula Dance Company and began dancing at age six. She trains in ballet, jazz, tap, musical theater, and her two favorites, contemporary and hip hop.
TisúCuarenta, a 4th grade student with Springs’ Otay Ranch Academy for the Arts (ORAA) who lives in Chula Vista, received a gold medal in ballet and a silver medal in contemporary dance in “Livorno in Danza”, a recent three-day competition in Livorno, Italy.
Thirty-four high school students from Magnolia Student Center and Renaissance Valley Academy traveled to CalTrans in San Bernardino to learn about careers with CalTrans, reported Maureen Roye, director of CITE. CalTrans created a “career fair” atmosphere, she said, and students were able to talk with CalTrans staff from its different departments such as maintenance, construction, material testing, real estate, drone flying, and planning.
Charter schools are independent public schools with rigorous curriculum programs and unique educational approaches. In exchange for operational freedom and flexibility, charter schools are subject to higher levels of accountability than traditional public schools. Charter schools, which are tuition-free and open to all students, offer quality and choice in the public education system.
The charter establishing each such school is a contract detailing the school’s mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. In California, charters are granted for five years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school’s contract. Charter schools are accountable to their authorizer, and to the students and families they serve, to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract.
Like traditional public schools, charters receive state funding based on a formula for each child enrolled in the school. Many charters also do additional fundraising to obtain grants and donations to pay for programs that are not fully funded by state or school district formulas. When lawmakers passed the Charter Schools Act of 1992, California became the second state in the country (after Minnesota) to enact charter school legislation. The intent was to allow groups of educators, community members, parents, or others to create an alternative type of public school.