More than 50 people attended a public meeting at Paonia Elementary on Friday night.
They were there to hear from the Valley Charter Initiative. It’s a group of parents and educators trying to open a Waldorf inspired public charter school in Paonia. The school would be part of the Delta County School District.
"So we’re looking at a PreK and K program, a grades program, a junior high and a high school," Cassandra Shenk, with the charter initiative, says.
She says the Waldorf method is different from other styles of teaching.
"There's a threefold way that they teach," Shenk says. "They teach [to] the will of the child [and] the heart, the feelings of the child, as well as the mind.
She says Waldorf schools teach kids to work with their hands and discourage the use of technology in the classroom.
Shenk says last year the Valley Charter Initiative tried to open a charter school in the area, but that effort failed.
The group was recently awarded $477,000 by the Colorado Department of Education to start a charter school. But they still needs approval from the Delta County School Board before they can move forward.
Parents and teachers at the meeting expressed concern over having another school in the area.
They say adding a new school would take students away from existing schools that already struggle with declining enrollment.
Joanna Godwin has two kids that attend local schools.
"My concern would be the funding [and] what the Waldorf School would take away from funding as far as the school district [goes]," Godwin says. "We’re already…stretched thinly on that part."
The Valley Charter Initiative argues that opening a Waldorf inspired school would draw home school kids into the district and attract families from other parts of the state.
Rebecca Arnold wants her child in a Waldorf school.
"Our daughter is in first grade," Arnold says. "We are homeschooling her this year. And we moved here to Paonia a year and a half ago in part because of the charter movement."
The group hopes to open the school about a mile outside of Paonia.
They estimate the school would have 49 students in its first year and 92 kids by its fifth.
Initiative officials say if the school board approves its charter, classes would start in the fall of 2015.
The school board’s decision is expected by the end of the month.
