Tribal charter school making progress on application

By Katherine Warren

Smoke Signals staff

Shawash-iliʔi Skul Administrator Justine Flynn met with Tribal Council Thursday, Feb. 19, to go over the status of the application for the Tribe’s charter school.

Flynn started with telling council about the meetings she has had, including with the Willamina School District, where charter school requirements were discussed.

“They agreed that we can do our own (special education) services in house,” Flynn said. “The only way WSD is involved with the charter school (is when) they distribute the funds that will be allocated to (Shawash-iliʔi Skul) by the state.”

Flynn went on to discuss the support meetings that she had with Oregon Department of Education and clarified a question around the current enrollment requirements, which is to keep the numbers the way they are due to the lack of space for expansion, having to create curriculum, a lack of trained staff and financial issues.

Flynn also had a check in with the Tribal Finance Department in February to discuss specific information about what financial management system is needed for a charter school.

Council members asked Flynn about the special education services and about how helpful ODE had been through the whole process.

“They have been very helpful and it’s nice to have a fellow Tribal member (April Campbell) as a part of that department to help with this transition,” Flynn said.  

Tribal Council Member Toby McClary inquired what the Willamina School District’s response has been like.

“It became very clear to me that they have no idea about the process or policies or procedures of this charter school application,” Flynn replied. “And it is something that I recommended to WSD to contact the ODE about.”

Another question that was asked was the idea of having year-round school and what would that look like. Flynn went on to explain that once the Tribe officially had a charter school with kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the building, that this is something that she is thinking about doing. Flynn noted a year-round model could work because the teachers at the Tribe don’t have the opportunity for three months off during the summer like those in public schools do. She noted studies that point to a loss of learning during the summer months with no education happening and said there are schools in the country that have a year-round schedule with long breaks during certain months.

The next phase in submitting the charter school application it to have the Tribal Attorney’s Office and Tribal Interim General Manager Bryan Langley do a final review before sending it to Tribal Council, Flynn said. After that process, Flynn plans to submit the application to the state.