New Heights Academy Charter School: Goffstown

Ages/Grades:  Grades 11-12

Contact: Ray Dumais

Web Site:  Click Here

Students Served:   This school is primarily for high school students. Priority given to students from Goffstown, Dunbarton, and New Boston.  Future expansion may include students from other school districts, depending on interest, need and space availability.

Area Located:  The facility plan is to house the school in Goffstown's high school building during non-traditional hours. A goal is to have students take advantage of other non-traditional classroom settings, including eLearning, internships, work, and community offerings. This relates to program goals connecting students to business, technology, and career offerings.

2005 Status:  Charter Application Submitted to Department of Education on September 21st, 2004; Authorized October 2005 (NH's 7th approved charter school)

Abstract:  The goal of the New Heights Academy to create a career focused high school for students in grades 11 and 12. The style of the school's program is "project-based learning based on Ronald Newell's writings. The charter school will create a supportive, flexible, and more personalized small learning environment that offers academic and career curricula as well as the latest technology. Graduation requires 22.5 credits.

The New Heights Academy will be housed in Goffstown High School during non-traditional hours. This school of choice is projected to have 160 students by the end of its 5th year.

Hope for Autism

Ages/Grades:  Ages 3-12

Area Located:  Southern NH

Contact:  Hope Fitzgerald

Executive Director 603-289.5238

Students Served:   25

Web Site: www.hopeforautism.org

2005 Status:  Received Pre-charter Planning Grant June 2004 to study and design a charter school. Since then a Board for the non-profit has been active and a Board of Advisors for the project established. The group has solicited numerous donations of time and service from architects, marketing companies, attorneys, autism centers. The group welcomes involvement of parents and others.

Abstract:  The school will include a typical preschool through kindergarten program (children without developmental disabilities) that will work collaboratively with the preschool-kindergarten autism population.  Research has indicated that it is critical for children with autism to have exposure to their typical peers so that they can model appropriate behaviors (speech, play, social skills) as they gain the core skills that are required to effectively participate in the educational environment.  The school will be based on a belief that with specialized instruction, autistic children can make developmental gains similar to their peers—a year’s progress in a year’s time. Therefore, the school will be based on very high learning expectations for a group of children where expectations have traditionally been much lower than those of their typical peers.

The ultimate goal of this program will be for children to make developmental gains that are expected for their age group, including appropriate progress in the general curriculum.

There are four components to the proposed charter school:

1) The basic school program: a full-day, 6-hour program for all ages of children;
2) An extended day program: 2.5-3 hour after school program for students ages 7–12
3) A home component requiring parent involvement for instructional carry-over; this would involve parent training, close involvement of parents in the education strategies and goals, and supervision from trained autism specialists;
4) Hands-on training at the school for college students and community adults interested in developing skills in autism that are needed for public school and in-home support with autistic children. This would create a resource pool of qualified therapists who will reach numbers of children with autism well beyond the numbers enrolled in the charter school.

The educational program will be implemented within a behavioral framework that is data driven, based on research and instructional strategies known as applied behavior analysis (ABA). The ABA model that will be used has evolved over the last 20 years and incorporates many strategies, such as incidental teaching, floor time, sensory integration, positive behavior support, and individualized instruction.

Educational programs for children will be customized according to the very specific needs of each child. Each child would have a case manager and we envision close ties with the special education case manager from the sending district.

Manchester Charter School

Ages/Grades:  Grades 4-8

Area Located:  Manchester, NH

Contact:  Troi Hopkins

Students Served:  Up to 300

Web Site:  N/A

2005 Status:  Submitted a school planning grant which was funded. A group of faculty, administrators, city officials, and parents have been meeting regularly to discuss and consider a charter school application. The application was completed and a proposal has not been endorsed yet by the Manchester School Board.

Abstract:  Manchester is a city of approximately 100,000 and has large numbers (for New Hampshire) of students from families fluent in languages other than English. Some of the interest in the school is creating a school where all children, including children with varied cultural backgrounds can thrive. A theme is a strong program in expressive arts, which is language transparent. When children thrive, there is less need for remedial services.  And so this program proposes a redistribution of school resources to some extent in an effort to create a choice school and address a need within the large city system of public education.

Hudson Charter School

Ages/Grades: 

Area Located: 

Hudson Area

Contact:

Students Served:

Web Site:  N/A

2005 Status:

Abstract:

The Hudson project is a feasibility project looking at how and if a choice, charter school or other choice provision might benefit the Hudson School District and surrounding school districts. There are many needs of public schools and categories of students who might better be served through a school of choice.

This planning and feasibility grant proposes to bring people together, to look at needs, and, if deemed right for this region, propose a charter or choice application.

Contact: Superintendent of Schools to see who will be coordinating the pre-charter planning grant.