The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Held a special meeting on Monday to discuss the possibility of the Nikolavsk creating a Charter School District.
Deanna Chesser created a PowerPoint that showcased some of the goals of the school. It would include a Montessori and Russian Immersion for all children. The curriculum would vary for children based on their age group, but it would be similar across the board with schooling, including math, science, history, language arts, and the arts. The work cycles would be offered in both Russian and English.
In the afternoon, the students would be offered the opportunity to take life classes like archery, skiing, sewing, and welding.
There currently are no forms of transportation for the children to get to school, so many parents would have to drop off their children or allow them to drive everyday.
As for students who are in the special needs program, they would not be able to add additional money for children with special needs, so those students would be required to attend a school that would provide a more-suited area for them. Special education aids are possible, but there is no funding for this.
Due to the fact that there were so many concerns about the document and missing bits of information that are of high importance, there was much debate on whether this documentation should pass or not.
An amendment vote was first taken into account. It’s the motion to approve the Nikolaevsk Charter School Application with the following conditions to successfully negotiate the MOA contained within the application.
The vote to accept the amendment was passed with 8 yeses and 1 no.
The next amendment was the approval of the Nikolaevsk Charter School Application with the condition to receive funding support through Title 1 Funds to be removed from appendix H. It was denied with all 9 members not present at the vote.
The final motion was to approve the Nikolaevsk Charter School Application as amended. It was put into motion by Patti Truesdell and seconded by Matt Morse.
The final vote was 4 in favor, and 5 opposed.
President Zen Kelly gave a closing remark and what the next options were for the future of the school. He then closed out the meeting.
“With the motion failing, the application will not move forward with approval of the Board of Education from the Kenai Peninsula Borough. You now have the ability to appeal to the Commissioner of Education, as discussed earlier. And the Commissioner will hear you your appeal and either send it back for further review by the school board or approve it and forward it to the State Board of Early Education or uphold the decision denying the Charter and then you can appeal to the directly to the State Board of Education.”
