"Like every Albemarle County public school, the Community Public Charter School opens its doors today. Unlike the other schools, however, the new middle school has no detentions, no suspensions and a curriculum infused with the arts.

The school is geared toward students who have fallen behind in reading and math, have weak organizational skills, struggle to learn from a textbook or have become disconnected from learning in general.

“The primary impulse came to be able to provide an opportunity for young people to attend a school that was a public school that offered the enriched potential that private schools offer,” co-founder Bobbi Snow said. “It’s a place for kids who struggle in some way and don’t fit into the larger school.”

The curriculum will apply the arts to each subject. A student learning geometry may build a birdhouse rather than simply draw a triangle on graph paper to better understand angles, co-founder Sandy Richardson said.

“Infusing arts really makes learning more enjoyable but also more thorough,” Richardson said.

The curriculum encompasses many forms of art, including music, drama, culinary arts, dance and environmental art.

“Arts is a vehicle that gives relevance to their learning,” said Chad Sansing, the language arts and head teacher.

Although the learning is not textbook-driven as in other public schools in the county, students will still be held to the state’s educational standards and are required to take the Virginia Standards of Learning examinations at the end of the year.

“The kids will learn the material but they’ll learn it in a different way,” Snow said. “Our school is about thinking outside the box and finding different ways to approach learning and teaching.”

Students are not allowed to receive a grade lower than a B, Snow said. If a student does not earn at least a B, he or she will receive an “incomplete.” Whether students will have to repeat the entire year or just the subject is still uncertain, Snow said.

Administrators will encourage students to learn how to accept responsibility through the use of Dr. William Glasser’s Choice Theory. Glasser’s theory mainly stresses that one can control only his or her own behavior and no one else’s.

“[Choice Theory is] the idea that students can learn and take responsibility for themselves,” Sansing said. “What choices can you make to keep your learning growing?”

Administrators and teachers will not punish students. The five-member faculty is more interested in whether the student is displaying the correct learning behaviors rather than if he or she has misbehaved, Sansing noted.

In addition to the lack of punishment, the school does not enforce rules but rather has four “non-negotiables:” attend, respect, try and support, or ARTS.

“It’s four things that we believe encompass what we need our students to do to be successful here,” said Rachel Pompano, special-education and art teacher. “That’s a huge focus of our school that’s unique.”

If a student disrupts the class or refuses to work, then administrators will help the student devise a plan that outlines what he or she needs to do to succeed and to create a healthy learning environment for the student and others as well, Snow said.

“Some people describe this as a time-in,” Snow said. “You try to get the student to come closer in. … You made a bad choice, we’re going to help you make a better choice.”

If a student continues to disrupt class and refuses to work on a regular basis, administrators will evaluate whether the school is the right match for the student, Snow added.

For more serious offenses such as violence and possession of drugs, the charter school will punish students according to Albemarle County school policy.

The school, housed in Burley Middle School, has 27 sixth-grade students enrolled and a maximum capacity of 36. As the students advance, the school will grow to include seventh and eighth grades.

Although CPCS has not reached its maximum enrollment for the incoming year, Snow said she believes that the school may have to reject applicants next year.

“I know it’s going to be a great school,” Snow said. “We are going to have to turn away people next year.”

The school will use a lottery system next year to determine enrollment, Richardson said.

More faculty members will be hired each year until the school reaches its full enrollment level of 108.

CPCS is one of two charter schools in Albemarle County, one of four in the state and one of 3,500 in the country. The county’s other charter school is Murray High School, which also uses the Glasser method." (Stephanie Kassab, The Daily Progress, Aug. 20, 2008)