NASHUA – The School District is putting the brakes on plans to open a charter school.

The initial timeline was to have a charter school proposal before the Board of Education in June, but Superintendent Mark Conrad said last week the district will take the summer to further develop the instructional aspects of the program and seek feedback in the fall.

Board of Education members had expressed concerns earlier this year about the specific model of the program.

“After conversations with the board and the union, we need to step back and say, ‘What does our vision look like?’?” Conrad said.

This doesn’t scrap the idea of a district-sponsored charter school in the city completely, Conrad said, but it serves as a refocusing effort.

A group of teachers and administrators will outline instructional goals, then decide whether the program is best fit for a charter school, Conrad said.

Other models, such as a “school within a school” like the former SNTAS program at Nashua High School, also could be considered, he said.

The central question that needs to be answered is how the program would improve student learning across the district, Conrad said.

“That’s the place to begin,” he said. “Then, we’ll go back to the question ‘Should it be a charter school?’?”

Conrad outlined the change at a board meeting in February, and board members supported the step back.

“We were making a decision where something was going to be placed before we really understood what we were talking about doing,” board President Bob Hallowell said.

The new plans include a heightened focus on middle school, although the initial proposal was to serve grades 4-8. Those details will be developed further this summer, Conrad said.

Nashua is one of the state’s first school districts to pursue the creation of a charter school. The Board of Education signed off on the plan in August, and several members are still in favor of the idea, but questions about cost, governance and resources persisted as the discussion went forward.

Hallowell said the board is supportive of taking a second look at the goals of the proposal.

“This gives everybody a chance to say, ‘OK, where do we want our focus to be?’?” he said.

If the district were to open a charter school, Nashua would be eligible for up to $500,000 from an $11.6 million federal grant New Hampshire received to help pay for starting new charter schools.

Under the original timeline, the earliest the school could have opened would have been the 2013-14 school year. However, Hallowell said that timeline now looks unlikely.

With the delay, the district may not have a charter ready for approval until December, and that wouldn’t leave enough time to receive the necessary state and city approvals, he said.

If the district decides on a charter school, Nashua’s would join 10 other public charter schools now operating in the state. The closest one is the Academy for Science and Design in Merrimack, which opened four years ago with the goal of serving up to 450 students in grades 7-10 with a specific interest in math and science.

Conrad maintains that the school would provide a venue for innovative teaching methods and practices. The long-term goal, he said, is to take what works at the charter school and use it across the district, benefiting all students.

Cameron Kittle can be reached at 594-6523 or ckittle@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Kittle on Twitter (@Telegraph_CamK).

Newsletter