Battle lines have been drawn over the proposed new charter school in Duneland, with a new parents group formed hoping to block the school.

Stand Up for Duneland Schools (SUDS) argues on its webpage that the Duneland School Corp. is a quality public school system and that tax dollars should not be used to subsidize those looking for an alternative education for their children.

SUDS has an online petition on its website, www.sudsnow.org

and has a paid ad in today’s Chesterton Tribune.

Meanwhile, Ball State University will host a second public meeting on the proposed Discovery Charter School this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the WaterBird Banquet Center, 556 Indian Boundary Road. Ball State, which is the entity that would grant the charter, took out a legal notice about the meeting in Friday’s Chesterton Tribune.

Both SUDS and Discovery are urging their supporters to attend Wednesday’s meeting.

Ball State University President Jo Ann Gora was earlier expected to announce whether to grant Discovery a charter in early June, but the decision was postponed for at least 30 days. Ball State instead said it wanted more public feedback and directed Discovery to reach out to the community.

Accordingly, Discovery founding board member and organizer Laurie Metz said the group has met with Duneland Superintendent Dirk Baer and has a meeting arranged with Chesterton Town Manager Bernie Doyle. The group also sent out a direct mailing to Duneland families to explain the charter school and has established its own website at www.dunesdiscoverycharter.org

Metz said Wednesday’s public input meeting will give Discovery the chance to address some of the misperceptions about charter schools that have been posted on the SUDS webpage. She said there are misunderstandings mainly about how charter schools are funded.

“We’re trying to get the right information out,” she said.

Beginning this year, the state of Indiana has assumed the full general fund costs for schools, including the per pupil tuition support. Discovery’s proposed budget projects that it will get $788,670 in state tuition support for its 276 students in the 2010-11 school year, then $1.86 million in the following school year when it grows to 316 students. Those funds would otherwise stay in the home school district for each student enrolled.

Discovery Charter School would open in the 2010-11 school year, starting off with grades kindergarten through six, then expanding to eighth grade over the next two years. Discovery proposes a non-traditional school setting, focusing on environmental education and outdoor, place-based learning.

Such an approach is the focus of the pre-school that Metz founded, the Field Station Cooperative, which is located on Howe Road within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

On its webpage, SUDS argues that charter schools are meant for economically challenged communities with troubled schools, citing the charter schools that exist in places such as Gary, East Chicago and Indianapolis.

“An environmental school in a wealthy school district seems very out-of-place in contrast,” SUDS says.

Noting that Discovery backers have said that they are not competing with the public schools but offering an educational choice, SUDS says it believes that such non-traditional schools should “be established with private funding or private grants, not from our tax dollars.” SUDS also addresses the argument that not every family can afford private schooling, by noting the current economic recession.

“Please understand that, to 600,000 of your fellow Hoosiers, complaining about affording a private school when there is a great school system in town seems rather audacious,” SUDS says.

As to where Discovery would be located, Metz said the group is working with several groups and developers and has a few sites in mind but will not announce its site location until after learning if it secures the required charter from Ball State.

She did say that the school might not be located within the town of Chesterton, but on the outskirts.

She noted that Discovery ideally would want to locate in a natural area with access to nature trails.