Charter school laws discussed at Cedar Rapids school board meeting

The Cedar Rapids school district has not received an application for a proposed charter school in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Superintendent Dave Benson said the district has received what he termed “a position paper” regarding the possibility of a charter school.

“What we have is a statement of interest,” Benson said.

Gretchen Price, a University of Iowa Ph.D. student, announced her efforts to create a charter school in downtown Cedar Rapids last week. Price, who taught at the Johnson School of the Arts in Cedar Rapids before taking leave to pursue her doctoral degree, is leading a group of local educators to create the Downtown School.

Price has said a charter school would allow the school district to break away from outdated teaching models.

The Downtown School is applying for an innovation zone consortium charter. This is a new addition to the state's charter school law - so new that the application to form such a school is still under development.

The state board of education only approved the guidelines for innovation zone schools in November 2010. When asked by board members when an application would be ready, Benson said he was told “soon” by the state.

“(The state) is well aware that there's an interest locally,” Benson said.

According to Iowa law, an innovation zone consortium charter school is conceived of two or more districts, plus its local Area Education Agency.

Iowa only has eight charter schools at this time. It has no innovation zone consortium charter schools.

Benson shared the state's charter school laws with board members Monday night in effort to clear any confusion regarding the Downtown School proposal. Benson stressed that the current laws may or may not apply to innovation zone schools.

“This is new,” he said. “We have not gone down this road before. The state has not gone down this road before.”

Currently, charter school applications must be approved by the local school board. Benson said he didn't know if that requirement would be different with innovation zone schools.

“We neither oppose or support any particular issue that's out there at this time,” he said.