This fall hundreds of Rockford students will enter District 205's first two charter schools. Here's a sneak peek at one of the schools as it prepares to open its doors.

With less than two months to go before Galapagos Charter opens its doors in West Rockford, representatives from the school are spreading their name and working to recruit more students. Sunday a Galapagos teacher talked to parents at CherryVale Mall.

"To me it almost feels like a sales job until I'm a teacher," says Galapagos Instructor Rebecca Bennett. "You know you have to educate people and let people know that we're out there and what we have to offer."

Galapagos hopes to start with around 180 kindergarten through third graders, then add a grade each year until they're K through eight.
The school's CEO says over the past week they're averaging about 20 applications a day. That's a sharp increase, since they finally sealed the deal to locate at the old St. Patrick's school building on School and Johnston. The process took longer than expected.

"Let's be honest it's a tough economy and we are borrowing $400,000 to do some renovations," says Galapagos CEO Michael Lane.

Galapagos will offer a longer school day and year, plus smaller class sizes (capped at 20), individualized instruction and high expectations.

"Even our kindergartners know what year they're going to graduate from college. So it's really kind of creating that culture that really values academics," says Lane.

The Galapagos Charter Network already has one school in Chicago, where they've improved test scores and made adequate yearly progress every year with a student body that's 100 percent African American, 95 percent free and reduced lunch.

"The population that we work with in Chicago is traditionally the hardest to serve and we've shown really great results with that population because we're using best practices," says Chief Academic Officer Stephanie Bartell.

As a refresher, charter schools are public, and use public money. Galapagos' CEO does not believe they'll drain funds from District 205. The school is open to students from all over the city and they're holding information sessions every Monday and Thursday at 6:00 P.M. at the Northwest Community Center.

For more information, head to www.galapagoscharter.org, or call 815-388-4644.