Charter school opts for single WSU-Davis site
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Amy K. Stewart
Standard-Examiner staff
H
igh-tech charter high school Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science plans to consolidate its two campuses onto the Weber State University Davis campus in Layton this fall.
"NUAMES is in need of a home," said Weber State Davis Director Bruce Davis.
The school currently has campuses in Kaysville and Roy. The change is expected to benefit the university and the charter school, which emphasizes concurrent enrollment with a goal of students graduating from high school with a college associate's degree.
"We want to create a pipeline of students into our university," said Norm Tarbox, Weber State vice president of administrative services.
The campus consolidation will mean challenges for the charter school, but Principal Rob Stillwell says it will be worth it.
"This is the right move to help us accomplish our mission," Stillwell said.
NUAMES plans to use 1.5 acres of Weber State's 105-acre Davis campus.
Portables
NUAMES will move 12 rented portables from its Kaysville site, 550 E. 300 South, to west of the Weber State Davis building at 2750 N. University Park Blvd. The charter school also will use five classrooms in the Weber State Davis building.
In turn, the university will use the NUAMES portables for classrooms in the evenings, when Weber State Davis is at peak demand for space.
Weber State Davis plans to add another classroom building, possibly in about five years. If it does, NUAMES wants to lease classroom space. This would help Weber State pay for the new building.
NUAMES has 435 students but its charter allows up to 500. There are 258 students at the south site and 177 at the north site. School officials predict enrollment will top out at 500 this fall, despite eliminating ninth grade.
NUAMES is renting 10 portables from Davis School District for $4,000 each annually. The charter school also is renting two double portables from GE Mobile for $900 a month. Moving the portables from the south site will cost about $100,000.
Roy lease?
The north NUAMES site at 4074 S. 1900 West, Building 6, in Roy, still has a three-year lease to rent classroom space. However, the landlord has agreed to put the space up for sale or lease, potentially allowing NUAMES out of the lease.
Teachers have been commuting between the two campuses. Many duties of the south and north site principals are duplicated.
"We're wearing out our teachers and administrators. And we don't have a sense of unity," said NUAMES school board President Susan Johnson.
NUAMES and Weber State Davis officials have formed a committee to address potential problems of having teens on campus.
"There are concerns," Davis said. "We want to protect the students and the facilities."
One issue is Internet access. State colleges and universities aren't allowed to restrict Internet searches on their campuses.
Other schools
Other high-tech charter high schools are on or near college campuses. The idea is for teens, mainly juniors and seniors, to take some college courses along with their high school curriculum.
High-tech charter school, InTech Collegiate High School, opened its doors last fall on Utah State University's Innovation Campus, which is six blocks from the main college campus.
InTech has freshman and sophomore students, but will grow to include juniors and seniors. Intech Principal Steve Zsiray says parents have had concerns about their teens mingling with college students, "but there hasn't been a problem, as far as I have seen."
Utah Valley State College, Southern Utah University and Salt Lake Community College have charter schools on or near their campuses.
Busing
Busing will be a big part of NUAMES' campus transition this fall.
The charter school plans to have a shuttle bus going from Weber State Davis to the main campus in Ogden each morning. The university is looking into having a bus in the afternoon running between the two campuses.
At its new Weber State Davis site, NUAMES officials are looking at busing the students to either Clearfield or Northridge high schools for lunch.
Because this will require a longer lunch, NUAMES is going to have to have a longer school day.
Longer commute
Currently, NUAMES students ride public school buses from their homes to mainstream schools. From there, buses paid for by NUAMES take students to the north or south sites.
With NUAMES' Layton location, the school day will start a few minutes later because of longer travel times.
School will get out later, so students will miss their buses going home from their mainstream high schools.
Parents will have to pick up their teens at the high schools.
NUAMES is a "New Century" Early College High School. It is one of six charter high schools authorized by the 2002 Legislature as part of then-Gov. Michael Leavitt's Engineering and Technology Initiative.
Debbie Hefner, NUAMES director of business operations, said, "The move will make us more valid as an early college high school."
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