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Winter 2008

CHARTER SCHOOLS TODAY www.charterschoolstoday.com

INLAND LEADERS CHARTER SCHOOL

Making a Difference in the Community

THE MAG A ZINE FOR CH ARTER SCHOOL EX ECU TIVES

Inland Leaders Charter School

Making a Difference in the Community Produced by Todd Rodgers & Written by Prem Desai Inland Leaders Charter School doesn’t end at the school gates.

“We’re involved in just about every little community project that’s going on,” says Mike Gordon, the Executive Director, “we just planted 80 trees at one of the local parks as part of make a difference day our students get highly involved.”

The 250 students in kindergarten through to grade six, 20 staff and countless parents help out at the Braille institute, local pet adoption agencies, collecting food for the homeless and graffiti abatement.

The school is almost brand new - it was opened in August of 2007. “It was developed as a communitybased school,” says Gordon, who

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worked in the district for over 12 years as a teacher, administrator and assistant principal after completing his education at the University of California Riverside and Cal State San Bernardino. “We had the intention of training students to be leaders in the community.”

their grade levels to discuss how to implement what they’ve learned. They work on the curriculum too: “We just got our first API this year. We’re at 840. We looked at our data, and local data we use too and we distinguished the fact that writing was our greatest weakness and we decided to focus on writing and literacy specifically.”

Gordon uses the $1.6 million budget to try and adapt to They decided to look at extensive after-school lessons, which each child: “Our methods are results-based. We try to cover 22 topics, and scale back the number of subjects provide as individualized a program as possible for each to target problem areas more specifically. “But in other student. Every student learns differently and at different paces, we believe.” He takes some areas that we’re looking at actually issue with standardized tests: “I implementing more,” says Gordon. have a problem with them as the “We teach Spanish during the school main measure. We don’t mind day so we’re looking at expanding that accountability - we do very well in program. We also teach French after this district. Our first year scores were school and Chinese but we’re looking higher than any other scores in the at improving our Spanish during the district. But I think it does become school day and actually teaching some problematic when you use it as the subjects in that language.” only, or the prioritized accountability measure.”

The school as a whole has very few The school manages to limit the disciplinary issues: “the most common impact the tests have on curriculum. things we have here are gum chewing And even the Average Yearly Progress and making a mess of their tables,” says measure has little sway over what Gordon. Occasionally a child will bring his teachers do in the classroom. But a penknife to school - accidentally or Gordon would like more discretion otherwise - but no major violations. in his choice of those teachers than In those cases “We hold conferences, the definition of highly qualified pre and post, and discuss the allows. “As a charter school I think intervention. Most of the parents here - MIKE GORDON the freedom and flexibility should are highly involved so we have a good be allowed because I think we can communication going on between do some things that would be good the home and the school. We develop for kids that No Child Left Behind won’t allow. We have a behavior plans and clear expectations of what will occur program here that does do some flexible groupings with if the behaviors continue. So we let them know that if students. We look at models of not just a multiple subject they come to school with a dangerous object, and they teacher but single subject teachers for elementary students return with it, the next time they will be sent to an and NCLB can limit some of that freedom and flexibility that expulsion proceeding. We also have some parenting we look for.” classes that we recommend parents attend if they’re having struggles and issues with their child.”

His staff is his most important assets. “The environment here is highly collaborative,” explains Gordon. All teachers Parental involvement is a huge factor in the school’s get together on Tuesdays with consultants or administration success. “Our parents here recognize that the educator to learn new methods, and then again on Thursday with is not the only one involved in the child’s education. We

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We find that students that are self motivated and want to push themselves master the standards at a quicker pace.

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look at them as equal partners in this game. We’re definitely not a drop-off school - parents are made to feel welcome, made to feel like they need to be involved at every level and we give them a voice. It’s a complete partnership here.” As a result, “it’s not uncommon to see four or five volunteers in a classroom at one time.”

ILCS created a program called PACE acceleration that the school developed for itself. The whole student body has the same classes at the same time. So if a second grader is performing in math at a third grade level, he or she moves to the more advanced class for that period. “About 15 per cent of our school right now is rotating up in either math or language arts,” says Gordon. “We find that students that are self motivated and want to push themselves master the standards at a quicker pace.”

COMPANY AT A GLANCE Established : 2007 Staff : 20 Students: 250 Executive Director : Mike Gordon

www.inlandleaders.org

In five years he hopes they will move out of the shared buildings they are currently in and into their own facilities.

“I see us with about 350 students at an elementary site and with another 200 students at a middle school site. We have about 150 students on the waiting list already with very little marketing. I think in five years we’ll be ready to replicate ourselves in some more high need areas in the urban populations.” What keeps him awake at night though is “what keeps most principals up - ways of improving.”

Hosaka, Nagel & Company is an accounting firm founded in 1977. We have been in public accounting for over 30 years and have specialized in financial audits of governmental entities.

We pride ourselves in keeping our staff current and our policy is to have our firm maintain an average of 200 hours in continuing education in auditing and accounting each year. Together, our professional staff possesses over 65 years of combined auditing experience.

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Winter 2008

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Inland Leaders Charter School 13456 Bryant Street Yucaipa, CA 92399 United States