Flashing a collection of smiles upon exiting the polling station Nov. 4, the bubbly pack of teens seemed to be enjoying their field trip. Baring witness to the democratic process, the Forest Charter students had just observed their teacher, Sarah Dorland, cast her vote.
‘We’ve been studying the election the entire semester,’ said Dorland, after catching up with her government class in the lobby of the Truckee Donner Public Utility District building. ‘It’s all been building up to this. Now we can move on to the Constitution.’
Such an Election Day outing – a teacher at the poll with students in tow – might seem out of the ordinary. But Forest Charter – a school that stresses smaller class sizes and individualized attention – prides itself on offering students an intimate educational experience.
Based in Nevada City, the school has operated two satellites in the Tahoe area since 2003. In contrast to the one-size-fits-all approach practiced in more traditional venues, the charter attempts to mold a student’s track of study according to their individual interests and needs.
‘You know, our program, it’s a team effort,’ said Janice Eggers, who heads up the local satellites, as she sat in the charter’s Truckee offices on a snowy Monday afternoon.
Learning is not a passive sport at Forest Charter. The school is designed so that the students, parents and teachers are all involved in the educational process.
‘We have a really high level of communication,’ Eggers explained.
Surrounded in the office by tall shelves packed with textbooks, Eggers described the Forest Charter philosophy. A basket of colored markers sat across from her on the table, while Tibetan prayer flags hung out in a window.
‘We’re really looking at a student as an individual,’ she said, ‘how they learn the best, how they work the best.’
The success of the Forest Charter method depends largely on the students. They must guide their education.
Each student is assigned an education specialist, a state accredited teacher, who tracks their progress. Together with the student and their parents, this specialist hones an individual’s course of study to suit their interest as well as satisfy state scholastic standards.
Eggers said the model is ideal for students who already have a clear path charted for themselves, or for those who are currently involved in activities – such as competitive skiing – that require them to travel during the school year. The personalized concept also works well, she said, for students who learn at a quicker or slower pace than the theoretical average.
Elizabeth Wainscoat currently has two children enrolled in Forest Charter. She said the school allows her to be more involved.
‘I think I wanted a voice for myself in my kid’s education,’ Wainscoat said.
The mother’s eldest, now graduated, attended both charter and traditional schools. She said the child’s time spent within a more traditional venue consisted of ‘busy work.’
‘He felt like there was a lot of wasted time there,’ she said, adding that she felt that a more individual route spurred students to ‘be honest with themselves, about whether or not that was really their best effort.’
Prior to attending Forest Charter, Wainscoat’s children were enrolled at Prosser Creek Charter School. That was before Prosser closed.
‘The reason we’re in Tahoe is that we had parents call us when Prosser Creek closed down,’ said Sandy McDivitt, executive director and founder of Forest Charter, from her Nevada City headquarters.
McDivitt said there was a wanting void for an alternative education option up the hill. Currently, Forest Charter has 104 students in Truckee, which has kindergarten through 12th grade, and another 57 at its Creekside, kindergarten through 5th grade, location in Tahoe City. McDivitt expects those numbers to grow in the coming years.
But the landscape is not entirely rosy in the local realm of alternative education. Recently, the Forest Charter entered some controversial financial waters. The Tahoe Truckee Unified School District is contesting a state-mandated obligation to supply the charter with funds for students who live within the district, but attend Forest Charter. To date, the District has not made a decision on how to proceed with the issue. The total tab – for this year and last year – now tallies at about $2.5 million.
McDivitt said she hopes the school district concedes to hand over the funding, but she is sympathetic to its financial concerns. In light of the dollar-drain on TTUSD, the charter does not plan to be overly aggressive in recruiting new students in the area.
‘Frankly, if we opened it up, I think we could really grow,’ McDivitt said. ‘What we’re trying to do is be sensitive to the district. We’re being very sensitive to the growth, let me put it that way.’
The financial ins-and-outs of the institution were not a topic of discussion during the Election Day field trip. Dorland’s students seemed preoccupied with their study of the process. A couple of them, beating out their peers in a race toward the legal voting age, will be making stops at their own polling stations later in the day.
When asked why they chose to attend Forest Charter, the students rattled off some of the more obvious upsides: flexible schedules, smaller classes.
‘Personalized learning!’ they said in unison, cracking up at their tongue-in-cheek lifting of a key phrase oft-repeated in Forest Charter literature.
‘No class on Thursdays,’ Dorland chided them, ‘no one said that.’
‘Well, that’s not the reason we go,’ responded Ryan O’Conner, one of her students.
~ Forest Charter School in Truckee is located at 10655 Pioneer Trail. 530-550-7205, forestcharter.com.
