Lake County's lone charter school wants to keep doors open

Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake wants state permission to stay open for another 10 years.

If that sounds odd, it's because pitching achievements to the Illinois State Board of Education to gain approval to continue operating isn't part of the equation for traditional public schools.

Prairie Crossing school board President Geoff Deigan said he's pressing the state to renew the charter for more than the standard five years to provide more stability. He said high standardized test scores, an expanded campus and strong strategic plan are among the reasons it should continue.

"We figure we have a pretty good track record," Deigan said.

Prairie Crossing is one of 35 charter schools in Illinois serving more than 25,000 students, according to the state board of education. It was the first suburban charter school and remains the only one in Lake County.

Charter schools are required to get renewals to operate every five years. Deigan said he's optimistic Prairie Crossing will receive word on its request by spring.

Open since 1999, Prairie Crossing is a small, public kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school offering an environmentally focused curriculum not found in a traditional education setting. It's a place where, on a given day, you might find kindergartners collecting eggs from a learning farm for a student lunch featuring salad greens and apples.

Children within the borders of Woodland Elementary District 50 and Fremont Elementary District 79 may attend Prairie Crossing without extra cost. Its enrollment of 359 students is decided by a lottery.

State board of education spokeswoman Mary Fergus said the agency received Prairie Crossing's 10-year charter renewal application in late December. The document covers more than 230 pages.

Fergus said formal objections to Prairie Crossing's renewal attempt have not been filed yet. Such was not the case before the charter school opened in 1999, when districts 50 and 79 tried to stop it.

Woodland officials formally objected to Prairie Crossing's last five-year renewal, citing a lack of diversity and drain on District 50's finances. Woodland diverts more than $2.5 million to Prairie Crossing to cover the cost of its students attending the charter school.

It's unlikely Gurnee-based Woodland will protest Prairie Crossing's pending charter renewal effort. District 50 board President Bruce Bohren said no one has requested a discussion on the issue.

"I think times have changed," Bohren said. "It's been around for a long time now."

Fremont, based in the Mundelein area, sent nearly $400,000 to pay for its children to attend Prairie Crossing in the 2007-08 academic year. Superintendent Rick Taylor said it's premature to say whether District 79 will fight the charter renewal this time.

"We have to wait until we receive a copy of the charter renewal and see what Prairie Crossing is proposing before we can comment," Taylor said.

Despite the lack of static from districts 50 and 79, there are Prairie Crossing Charter School critics.

One former Prairie Crossing board member says while she supports the charter school's mission, it hasn't been doing well enough in some areas to warrant remaining open.

Laura Elizabeth Fay, the ex-board member, said Prairie Crossing has particularly failed at achieving a diverse student population. The state's 2008 report card shows the school's students were 77 percent white, with 2 percent classified as low income.

She said Prairie Crossing's lack of a subsidized hot-lunch program and its inability to provide busing for students effectively shuts out eligible lower-income children who live within Woodland's boundaries in Park City, which is seven miles from Grayslake.

"If you are a low- to moderate-income family and you can't drive your children to school, you need not apply," Fay said.

Fay said Prairie Crossing provides a "quasi private education" with public money. She said it's more of an amenity for the Prairie Crossing subdivision and its developer, which is the school's landlord.

But Deigan said 70 percent of the school's pupils come from outside the subdivision, which is off Route 45 in Grayslake. He added that officials are working on a transportation system, but it's tricky because the student lottery means children come from different areas every year.

"It is a public school," Deigan said, "but it is a public school of choice."