Members of the Vision School’s board of stewards addressed the Delta County School Board last week about the school’s desire to secure a charter designation. KVNF’s Marty Durlin reports.
Vision School stewards, flanked by a group of concerned supporters, urged the board of education to move more quickly toward securing charter status for the alternative school. With campuses in Paonia, Cedaredge and Delta, Vision offers individual attention and innovative instruction to 645 students district-wide. Vision School steward Cindy Sorenson’s two daughters are Vision students in the North Fork.
"We would like to become Charter, and that depends on the board of education – they have the sole authority to help us become a charter if that’s the way they choose to go, and that’s one reason we’re talking tonight."
A charter designation brings with it a package of waivers that would allow Vision to operate as it always has – using a small group of accredited, or highly qualified, teachers to supervise instructors without such degrees. Without the designation, Vision could lose its unaccredited instructors because of changes made recently by the Colorado Department of Education. And time is short, said Gregory Hunt, a steward from Cedaredge.
"There’s a long, long list of things to cover. And I must point out that it took us from January to June two years ago to negotiate the regular Vision contract."
School board president Pete Blair said the board is waiting for a letter from the state Department of Education before taking any action on the charter school issue.
