Local Arizona School Districts Respond to Charters
Arizona public school districts are responding to the charter school model in a variety of ways.
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Tucson Unified School District is responding by offering the First Choice Schools program, which offers options including; OMA Gold schools (Opening Minds through the Arts), International Baccalaureate schools, artful learning schools, Montessori schools, and Reggio Emilia schools
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Sunnyside School District is using technology to encourage students to remain in the district. They are utilizing $213,300 to keep eighth-graders from leaving by loaning laptops this summer to qualifying students and enrolling them in a college-prep program.
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Districts are even moving into the charter school arena. Vail Unified already runs two charter school in their district; Vail High and Civano Community School. Mesa Public Schools recently announced that they received state approval to establish charter schools in their district using a non-profit group created by the Mesa Unified School District.
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For additional information, see below:
Sunnyside, TUSD work to counter charters’ lure, Arizona Daily Star, Jan. 24, 2010
Searchable database of private, charter and magnet schools (Tucson Area), Arizona Daily Star, January 23, 2010
Mesa district nonprofit group gets OK to run charter schools, East Valley Tribune, January 25, 2010