The mission of each Springs Charter School is to empower students by fostering their innate curiosity, engaging their parents, and promoting optimum learning by collaboratively developing a personalized learning program for each student.
Venture Online kindergarten student Agastya Y. is a gifted pianist. He earned a California State Honors Award on his Level 3 Piano Certificate of Merit exam, designated as excellent in sight reading and technique, and for the music pieces he performed. In June, he performed at the California Music Association’s Convention Festival. Click here to listen to him perform.
The Temecula Student Center (TSC) was pleased to graduate 36 students at the close of the 2023-24 school year, including four who finished their graduation requirements in three years “earning them the distinction of being early finishers,” reported Valerie Walker, principal. One student will be going on to attend Cal Poly Pomona, others to local community colleges, and some to trade schools.
iShine Student Center 5th-grade student Rebeca Jimenez and her Girl Scout troop donated a “beautiful buddy bench” which they had built for the school’s kindness garden, reported Stacey Savin, campus coordinator. It helps create a "beautiful outdoor space" where students can socialize, Stacey said.
Riley H., a 5th-grade student at the Murrieta Student Center, is the June 2024 Student Artist of the Month. Her picture is entitled “Galaxy of Learning.” Riley likes to draw landscapes and animals; she likes to create her art using watercolor and paint on canvas and clay. Besides art, she likes singing and dancing, computer coding, soccer, and swimming.
The Del Rio Student Center TK-1st grade students in teachers Sharon Ware and Kimberlie Moore's classes have been working to improve the school garden, reported Kim Ballantyne-Morse, principal. They are learning about various plants and flowers; they have been growing vegetables and fruits for students to sample.
Journey Homeschool High School ES Summer Knapp (right) received a Crystal Apple Award from the LDS Church in Hemet in recognition for the positive impact she has made in her profession. She was nominated by her student Lily Herterich, who described Summer as “amazing.” Lily remarked, “She has been so important to me throughout high school, and I’m looking forward to spending senior year with her.”
Charter schools are independent public schools with rigorous curriculum programs and unique educational approaches. In exchange for operational freedom and flexibility, charter schools are subject to higher levels of accountability than traditional public schools. Charter schools, which are tuition-free and open to all students, offer quality and choice in the public education system.
The charter establishing each such school is a contract detailing the school’s mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. In California, charters are granted for five years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school’s contract. Charter schools are accountable to their authorizer, and to the students and families they serve, to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract.
Like traditional public schools, charters receive state funding based on a formula for each child enrolled in the school. Many charters also do additional fundraising to obtain grants and donations to pay for programs that are not fully funded by state or school district formulas. When lawmakers passed the Charter Schools Act of 1992, California became the second state in the country (after Minnesota) to enact charter school legislation. The intent was to allow groups of educators, community members, parents, or others to create an alternative type of public school.