The mission of each Springs Charter School is to empower students by fostering their innate curiosity, engaging their parents, and promoting optimum learning by collaboratively developing a personalized learning program for each student.
Jedidiah McClimans, an 8th grade student with the Springs Homeschool program who lives in Riverside, has received a Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship. He was one of 27 gifted students who were awarded this fully funded, four-year high school scholarship from The Institute for Educational Advancement.
Mia Brijandez is 10th grader in the Journey Homeschool High School program who is a “phenomenal” student, reported her ES Summer Knapp. She has a 4.39 GPA and has dual enrollment classes despite being a sophomore. She is also a gifted artist and hopes “to become a well-known artist one day and make people feel deep emotions through my creations.”
Joshua Harrington is a budding jiu-jitsu star who is also a 5th grade student in Springs’ Venture Online program. He began with jiu-jitsu at age 5 and has come to like it because “I learn how to fight, defend myself, get stronger, faster, and be brave enough to do tournaments with my dad.” He currently trains daily with his father.
Springs Charter Schools’ iShine Student Center held a middle school Snow Ball with 80 students in attendance. Students enjoyed a DJ and Nacho Bar, Sarah Sims, program facilitator, said. She continued, “This was a magical evening filled with joy and laughter under the stars and twinkle lights … It was such a happy night.”
Springs held an All School Speech Meet at the Temecula Event Center. Thirty-nine students participated and 34 speeches were delivered. Its purpose is to help students develop communication skills and techniques to speak audibly, articulately, expressively, and with poise and confidence in audience situations, explained Nikkole McAdoo, Events and Community Engagement Coordinator.
HCT Lauren Sommer is teaching Lego Express, a new class at Springs’ Santa Ana Learning Center using the first Lego League curriculum. In this exploratory class, students in grades 4-8 learn coding and engineering while building essential teamwork skills including critical thinking and problem-solving. Students work with their team members to solve problems cooperatively while demonstrating gracious professionalism.
Charter schools are independent public schools with rigorous curriculum programs and unique educational approaches. In exchange for operational freedom and flexibility, charter schools are subject to higher levels of accountability than traditional public schools. Charter schools, which are tuition-free and open to all students, offer quality and choice in the public education system.
The charter establishing each such school is a contract detailing the school’s mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. In California, charters are granted for five years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school’s contract. Charter schools are accountable to their authorizer, and to the students and families they serve, to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract.
Like traditional public schools, charters receive state funding based on a formula for each child enrolled in the school. Many charters also do additional fundraising to obtain grants and donations to pay for programs that are not fully funded by state or school district formulas. When lawmakers passed the Charter Schools Act of 1992, California became the second state in the country (after Minnesota) to enact charter school legislation. The intent was to allow groups of educators, community members, parents, or others to create an alternative type of public school.