The district is looking at building the alternative school on the northwest corner of the current Kuna Middle School property, according to Jay W. Hummel, Kuna’s Superintendent of Schools

The school will provide a more flexible course of study for high school students within the Kuna district. In the valley, alternative high schools have offered smaller class sizes, giving teachers the opportunity to spend more time one-on-one helping students who are often over-looked in the more traditional high school due to large class sizes.

With the addition of an alternative high school, Kuna will be joining the ranks of other local communities such as Meridian (Meridian Academy), Nampa (Alpha I), and Boise (Fort Boise, Mountain Cove, and Booth Memorial).

Read the Kuna Melba News next week for a follow-up story on this event.

The sale will be held at the I-DEA Boise Resource Center located at 8620 W. Emerald St., Benjamin Plaza suite 190. Materials available for public purchase include Dell printers, art supplies, homeschool curriculum and books, maps and globes, Lego kits, and more.

For more information on this sale call the I-DEA Boise Resource Center at 672-3441.

Statewide public libraries are having special programs centered around this year’s featured story series and author Geronimo Stilton. Yesterday the Kuna Library had two shows featuring Stilton’s stories–one at 4 p.m. and one at 7 p.m. Children and their parents can catch one more show tomorrow at 4 p.m.

According to research infants and children who are read to are more enthusiastic about reading, are better readers, are more successful in school, and are more likely to remain lifelong readers. Since parents are their children’s first teacher, parental involvement in reading dramatically increases children’s scores on reading comprehension testing.

For more information on Idaho Family Read Week visit http://libraries.idaho.gov/readweek.

Children can earn hockey tickets, an Idaho Steelheads cap and be recognized at a public skate March 1 at Qwest Arena this winter.

The program, which runs through Feb. 22, 2008, is geared toward children ages 5-13. Readers receive rewards for scoring three goals, a “hat trick” in hockey terms.

The first goal is to check out a book at the library. The second goal is to read with a family member for at least 20 minutes a day for seven days. For completing the first two goals children can earn up to two tickets to an Idaho Steelheads’ game. After completing those goals, children can score a hat trick by reading about the Steelheads at Idaho Steelheads [dot] com and writing a 100-word essay about the team. The “hat trick” nets them a Steelheads cap and a skate at Qwest Arena. A bookmark outlining these goals can be picked up at the Kuna Library.

The program builds on a formula educators often recommend for developing reading and writing skills, so that children can be more successful as students: encourage them to read often, read together as a family, use the library, and make reading and writing fun.

For more information contact the Kuna Library at 922-1025

Camp Invention is entering it’s 17th year of operation as a national science day camp. In Idaho Camp Invention will run in several cities: Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Nampa, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and Hayden.

The program maintains a ratio of one staff member to every eight children. The local staff director of the Kuna camp is LuAnn Newton, a teacher at Ross Elementary school. The hours run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.–similar to regular school hours.

The activities planned this year include investigating a make-believe crime scene; designing boats, hovercrafts and gliders; and creating inventions from ordinary household items.

The program was created in 1990 by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation and received support from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Camp Invention organizers tout “inquiry-based lessons that lead children to work with their hands and their minds…[they] learn to think outside of the box.”

The early enrollement period ended on March 15 but their is still space available. The cost now is $199 for the week-long program which includes daily snacks and a t-shirt.

Parents may enroll their children through the camp’s website: http://www.invent.org/camp/ or by calling 1-800-968-4332. Parents may call 571-1074 for scholarship information.

Hankins said the Kuna Library has funds that they can use to buy home schooling materials, but until recently, many home schooling families have not been aware of the resource.

In light of recent discussions with area home schoolers, Hankins decided to offer the tutorial to any family in need of help and information. Hankins said she will explain how to use the library’s online network to find books for research projects, etc.

According to Hankins, when the library moved from the high school to its current location several home schooling families brought in various curriculums and the library used funds to buy books specific to the needs of the participating families.

For the tutorial on Monday, home schooling families are welcome to bring in their curriculum and get books ordered for their specific needs.

The tutorial will be held on Monday at 1 p.m. at the Kuna Library.

Darrel Deide, the chairman of Idahoans for Excellence in Education (a political action committee advocating parents’ freedom of choice in schools) spoke at length about educational choice.

“[IEEPAC] believes all families should have education choice…real parent involvement is having parents set short and long term goals for their students,” said Deide. “We have a great opportunity for school improvement, better than what we’ve had in the last decade.”

Joe DeVera, member of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission said government charter schools serve an important role in the state by introducing an element of market competition to districts. “Competition will drive Idaho education to a better place.”

Boise School District Superintendent, Stan Olson, discussed his experience with public charters in the Boise schools.

Olson said between the years 1997 and 2002 the student population of the Boise District declined by 2000 students. In an effort to bring numbers back up the Boise District introduced open enrollment, allowing parents to choose what school they wanted to send their children to regardless of boundaries.

Olson said when the district opened enrollment 600 students came back to the district. “[The increase came from people] seeking program choice.” Since that time the Boise District has added two new public charters, Anser Public Charter and Hidden Springs, and has turned an existing traditional elementary, Owyhee, into a Harbor Method school.

In addition to the availability of charters Boise District also created the Treasure Valley Math and Science Center which takes students from all over the district for half of the day to do a more rigorous math and science curriculum.

Olson said program choice is about serving the needs of the kids.

The summit ended with a panel discussion about the future of educational choice in Idaho. The panel consisted of representatives from the Idaho Legislature, the State Board of Education and the Idaho Public Charter School Commission.

SBE member, Karen McGee said the SBE’s focus will be on students, a sentiment echoed by Idaho’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna. “By giving parents choice, we are decentralizing the [SBE’s] power…it doesn’t get more decentralized than that.”

After Luna’s speech the floor was opened for questions from the audience. A concern echoed by more than one audience member was the caps put on opening new charter schools. Currently state law dictates that no more than six new charter schools may be opened per year. Luna said that is one issue he and the SBE will be looking at over the next legislative session.

Following Luna’s talk, Ken Burgess community manager with the Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families, said the new school cap wasn’t necessarily an issue. “Last year only four new charters opened [in the state]. The year before that only four opened. [Charter advocates] are not bumping up on the cap…Now is the opportunity for [charter schools] to show they are performing [as well as traditional schools] if we want [the laws] to change.”

Speakers this year include State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, members of the Idaho Legislature, Charter board members, and Charter commission members. Governor Butch Otter is invited but he hasn’t confirmed whether or not he’ll be there organizers said.

Charter schools are publicly-funded, semi-autonomous schools within the government education system that operate under the conditions of their charter agreement and applicable state and federal laws.

There are 28 charter schools currently in operation in Idaho with a statewide student body of about 8000 children. Additionally about 4000 students are on waiting lists to get into various Idaho charters.

The schools range from virtual institutions like Idaho Virtual Academy and Idaho Distance Education Academy to more traditional brick-and-mortar schools like Falcon Ridge Public Charter School in Kuna.

Since 1998 when the state legislature passed Idaho Code 33-5202 (legislation which made government charters legal in Idaho) charter schools have served a key role in parent and student educational choice. According to the head of Idaho Virtual Academy, Cody Claver, recent statistics show that 80% of all Idahoans support the concept of school choice.

Kuna resident, Sam Gerlach, has all three of her children enrolled in Falcon Ridge. She and her husband looked to Falcon Ridge when their oldest son, Forest, began having problems at Kuna Middle School.

“After we got Forest in [Falcon Ridge] it was so good,” said Gerlach. This year the Gerlachs have all three of their children at Falcon Ridge: Forest is in the eighth grade class, Savanna is in the first grade class, and Desert is in the kindergarten class.

“They’re all doing well…[Falcon Ridge] really challenges them.” Though Gerlach has been looking for a job change, she said if Falcon Ridge is able to continue with a ninth grade class next year, the family will stay in Kuna in order to keep their children at the school.

The public is invited to participate in the Idaho Public Charter School Summit but registration is required. Registration is available online at http://www.idchartercoalition.org .