Group proposes Lake County's first charter high school

A coalition of Lake County social service agencies, churches, synagogues and mosques is proposing creating the area's first charter public high school in Waukegan.

Lake County United will unveil its plans for the charter school at a news conference from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Holy Family Catholic Church, 450 Keller Ave., Waukegan.

To start a charter school, the group needs approval from Waukegan School District 60's school board and the Illinois State Board of Education.

It would be only the second charter school in Lake County after Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake - a kindergarten through eighth-grade facility serving students within the boundaries of Fremont School District 79 in Mundelein and Woodland School District 50 in Gurnee.

Concern over Waukegan High School's dropout rate and fewer collegebound students each year prompted area agencies to propose the charter school idea.

"We were disturbed by some of the things we learned about high absenteeism at the high school, low graduation rates and very poor test scores, particularly for African-American and Latino students," said Melissa Earley, pastor of Living Faith United Methodist Church in Waukegan and member of Lake County United's steering committee. "To have a strong college prep high school in Waukegan is vital to the city and all its residents."

District 60 school board President June Maguire is not convinced of the need for a charter school.

"There are different kinds of charter schools and we don't know what they are talking about until we see what their proposal is in writing," Maguire said. "We don't know all the facts."

Charter schools are privately managed yet taxpayer-funded public schools that don't have to follow many of the state and local education rules and regulations.

The cost to build the school would be paid for by the group creating the charter, and operations would be funded by the authorizing public school district.

Maguire is concerned how Waukegan school district would fund a charter school.

"We're a struggling district as it is, financially," she said.

Maguire acknowledged the high school's poor graduation record - less than 70 percent in the 2007-2008 academic year per the Illinois school report card - but said the district is working on those problems.

The district introduced small learning communities at the high school for its freshmen and sophomore classes, and will expand the program to the whole school next academic year.

Students entering high school are assigned to a "house" and will be taught by the same group of teachers for their core courses, and will have the same counselors and social workers all four years.

"So the teachers can really work with the students, get to know them and what their problems are, and try to help them," Maguire said.

Earley said Waukegan High School offers a college studies program, but only the best students get into the program.

"The kinds of students that we want to see go to the charter school are students who aren't ready yet for the college studies program," she said.

Charter schools allow more local control than traditional public schools and give administrators and teachers the freedom to experiment with the curriculum, to set the length of the school day and number of school days during the academic year.

If approved, the Waukegan charter school could open by fall 2009. It would be open to all high school-age students in the district. Its target enrollment would be 600 students functioning lower than their grade level.

For more information about Lake County United's charter school proposal, visit the Web site http://www.lakecountyunited.org/.