Ball State University has granted the approval necessary for the Discovery Charter School.

Laurie Metz, a founding board member of Discovery, said she received the approval letter early Thursday afternoon from Ball State President Jo Ann Gora.

“It’s official,” Metz said.

The approval for a five-year charter came less than 24 hours after Ball State hosted a second public informational meeting about the proposed charter school. At Wednesday night’s meeting, Larry Gabbert, director of the Office of Charter Schools for Ball State, predicted that the decision would be made sometime next week.

In Thursday’s letter sent to Metz, Ball State Presidnet Jo Ann Gora said she accepted the recommendation made by Gabbert and by John Jacobson, dean of Teachers College, to approve the charter for Discovery, beginning with the 2010-11 school year.

“I want to personally thank you for your patience and the extra time you and your organizing group invested in ensuring that the Duneland community was afforded additional opportunities to learn about the vision and proposed offerings of the school,” Gora wrote in the letter.

Gora was originally expected to decide on the charter in early June, but that decision was tabled in order to get more public input. Ball State then hosted its second public information meeting on Wednesday night before Gora issued her decision early Thursday afternoon.

Metz said the location of the new charter school has not yet been selected and that Discovery didn’t want to firm up its site selection until first knowing if it would receive the charter approval. Discovery has a few different locations in mind and will need to meet Ball State’s building criteria before finalizing the school’s location, she said.

But, Metz said she doesn’t expect any hurdles in that process.

“We’re through the hard part,” she said.

Discovery Charter School proposes a place-based curriculum integrating environmental education and plans to open in the 2010-11 school year, starting off with grades K through six. It plans to add seventh and eighth grade over the following two years.

As with all charter schools, Discovery will be open to any Indiana student and will be a public school that won’t charge tuition. However, its school board members will be appointed, and the school will be given more flexibility than traditional public schools, like Duneland. It will still have to meet Indiana academic standards, but could be exempt from policies of the Indiana Department of Education.

Duneland School administrators and others supporting the Duneland Schools have spoken out against Discovery, saying that the intent of charter schools is to provide an alternative in communities with struggling schools, not in communities like Duneland, which is generally regarded as a high-quality school system.

Duneland officials have also expressed concern about the fiscal impact of losing students and the state tuition support, roughly projected to be anywhere from around $875,000 a year to up to $3 million, depending on the number of Duneland students who transfer to the charter school.

Metz said at Wednesday’s meeting that based on the interest already shown, the students who will attend Discovery will come from a variety of backgrounds: Some are now being home schooled, while others are attending private school. Interest has also been shown from families in Beverly Shores and Miller Beach, as well as from those in the Duneland school system and elsewhere who are looking for an alternative educational experience for their children.

Although Discovery backers have been working on their proposal for several years, the proposed charter school became known publicly in late May, with the announcement of Ball State’s first public meeting.

Posted 7/3/2009