Missoula could see a new charter art school and a fully online school next year after the Missoula County Public Schools’ Board of Trustees unanimously approved the district’s first charter school proposals this week.
The proposed charter schools will cover early kindergarten to 12th grade, meeting varying purposes. One proposed charter school sets out to establish an arts education for grades K-5, while also providing an opportunity for certifying new teachers in the community. The other proposed charter school builds on existing online education programs created initially during the COVID-19 pandemic for grades 6-12.
The charter school applications come ahead of a Nov. 1 deadline for the first round of public school charter applications to the Montana Board of Public Education. If approved, the charter schools would be some of the first in the state after House Bill 549 passed in the 2023 legislative session. HB 549, which placed charter schools under control of public school boards, was one of two successful bills about charter schools in the last session. The other bill allowing for charter schools by private entities has since been partially blocked by a state court after a challenge by educators.
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The arts education school, titled TEACH (Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Creative Harmony) Academy, would employ an art-integrated approach instead of a subject-specific approach employed traditionally by Missoula public schools.
“It’s getting away from thinking about the current model of K-5 where we teach one section and then another section and then we teach content to more content,” MCPS Assistant Superintendent Vinny Gianmonna told trustees Tuesday night. “It’s really how do we braid all of our content together through a focus around the arts and allow kids to express themselves in different ways what they’re learning, and really to be able to show and tell what they’re learning?”
Some of the intended short-term outcomes of the TEACH Academy include a better rate of attendance than non-charter schools and greater engagement in classes. According to MCPS attendance data, roughly 35% of elementary students miss 10% or more of their school days and MCPS assessment data shows that nearly 40% of students are not meeting grade level standards.
An arts-integrated education is meant to provide more opportunities for active and movement-based lessons to encourage greater motivation and education, according to the charter school’s draft proposal. Students would still be taught the skills expected in their grades, but lessons will also integrate art.
The proposal references Missoula’s reputation for supporting the arts as a reason why the school serves the community needs. Missoula was ranked nationally in the top 10 for a medium-sized town for art providers and community and government support of the arts, according to a report by college organization SMU DataArts last year. The school would further develop a partnership with the nonprofit SPARK Ignites Learning Initiative to help develop a fully integrated arts curriculum.
In year one, the school would be open to all Montana residents in pre-kindergarten to second grade. The TEACH Academy aims to enroll 75 students that first year before eventually expanding to older grades. There would be no additional enrollment costs for the school. A lottery system would be in place for applications beyond the maximum enrollment number.
Gianmonna said MCPS hopes the TEACH Academy can help address widespread staffing shortages through opportunities for high schoolers and college students. This would include paid internship opportunities, including paraprofessional and support staff roles, for high school students as part of a work-based learning program.
By its third year, the charter school would begin a partnership with the University of Montana’s School of Education to better provide those opportunities and recruit potential teacher education candidates.
“We know that we’re in a staffing shortage in our state, across the country,” Gianmonna said. “This is another way to leverage a lot of the resources that we have in our district in order to try to promote and retain aspiring teachers, which is a struggle for all of us.”
Online school
The goal of the charter online school, named Connect Academy, is for MCPS to better meet student needs with individualized courses and options for accelerated learning, according to the proposal.
“From Advanced Placement courses to remedial courses, wherever we can meet students where they’re at, that’s what we want,” Superintendent Micah Hill said.
The proposal states that students will be able to access a wider range of courses and instructors than might be available at a traditional middle school or high school. That includes asynchronous learning that allows students to take classes at their own pace, participate in work-based learning, and make up credits.
Connect Academy builds on the Missoula Online Academy’s approach initially started in 2020 during the pandemic, Hill said.
Like the TEACH Academy, it would be open to all Montanans.
The first-year plans to enroll 72 students, with a goal of 175 students by its fifth year. Students enrolled in the school would be provided laptops and other equipment if needed. It will also employ a lottery system if the program receives more applications than it can enroll.
At the meeting Tuesday, board members expressed reservations about the equity of some of the proposed schools and whether they could be targeted for certain populations.
“My concern for both charter schools is that they will naturally invite families who have more resources to apply … maybe they will have a parent at home who can be with them during an online academy,” Trustee Meg Whicher said. “I work in a world where getting parents to register for after-school programs is difficult if it involves anything. So, I’m going to be really looking to the cabinet and the board to figure out how we can make this a truly equitable process for our families because this is still pretty cool.”
Hill agreed with some of Whicher’s concerns and said the school district is planning to aggressively promote the academies after approval.
“Arts integration is a bit of an equity leveler, because it connects to all kids and all kids can find something out of that,” Hill said. “And so that’s why I’m hoping a lot of our families will see the excitement in that and are encouraged to apply. To add to that, public charter schools do not charge our students for access.
“So, when we think about the socio-economic barriers that sometimes exist, if someone needs a laptop, we’re going to provide a laptop. If someone needs access, transportation, we’re going to work to try and make all of those things happen for all of our students.”
The charter school proposals will first be heard mid-November at the Board of Public Education. Decisions on the proposals will be made mid-January. If approved, students could begin applying for the schools in April and May.