One vision for a potential Rockford charter school comes into focus Monday night at a meeting of the school board's education committee. Here's what the school could offer our kids.

Representatives from Comped - a group of Chicago educators, administrators and consultants - made their case to Rockford school leaders for why their proposal to open the Legacy Academy of Excellence is a good fit for our district.
The Academy would be a K-12 school serving around 400 kids. It would open in stages, starting fall 2009 in the old Evergreen School near the airport.
The proposal includes a longer, seven hour, school day and 200 days of instruction per year, instead of 180.

"With our extended day, some kids would receive as much as two to three years more of instruction," says Kimberly Briscoe, Chief of Operations for the Comped Charter School Network.

"We have so many students that we're losing and in going with a smaller class size, possibly more concentrated and longer instructional time, some of those challenges students have can be overcome," says Rockford School Board Member Mike Williams.

Charter supporters believe providing more public education options would lure more families to District 205 and away from private schools.
Kids from all over the city could apply for the charter through a random lottery. Typically charters have higher test scores and graduation rates and proponents believe success spreads.

"Traditional public schools begin to adopt some of those same methods," says Rockford's Director of Education Adam Smith.

The charter operators stressed they would not be taking money away from the district, because public funds follow the student when they move from traditional public schools to charters. Therefore, the amount of state and local tax dollars still match the number of students the district has to provide for.

There are expected to be three more charter applications submitted by mid-January, one as soon as Monday.