The potential curriculum choices for the proposed Orcutt Charter Academy will be reviewed at noon today by the Orcutt Union School District board.

District officials said they want to develop a curriculum that would offer students a wide variety of opportunities to apply academic concepts and skills to real-world situations.

“It's going to be a robust and rigorous course of study,” said Associate Superintendent Ken Parker. “We're looking at the courses that the students would be required to take and also those that they would elect to take.”

Earlier this month, the Orcutt board approved plans for the academy and now those plans will go before the state Board of Education for possible approval Nov. 6.

If the state board approves the plans, the school will open in September.

The school would have two campuses, with students from kindergarten through high school divided by age.

Enrollment in Orcutt - a district of 4,740 students - is down 150 students from last year.

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With declining enrollment a hot topic in school districts throughout the Santa Maria Valley, Orcutt officials have said they view the proposed charter school as a way to both increase enrollment and better serve children by offering more educational options.

One campus would house classes for kindergarten through eighth grade and the other would be the only high school campus in the district. Orcutt students now move on to the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District after junior high.

According to the proposal, the high school campus would offer an accelerated college preparatory track and a vocational track.

Developing high school curriculum has been particularly challenging, said Parker.

“Because we haven't done high school before, we're in process of creating what the curriculum might look like from year to year,” he said.

However, students would have the option to take classes on either track.

Parker said the curriculum for the high school would emphasize applying academics.

For instance, in an environmental science class that district officials are creating, students might do a project involving the use of computer models to pinpoint erosion caused by levees, which could be useful in Santa Maria city planning projects.

Parker said he also plans to have the high school offer International Baccalaureate classes, which would allow students to receive college credit while still in high school.

“We're on our way,” Parker said.

The meeting will be at noon at the district office boardroom at 500 Dyer St. in Orcutt.

October 25, 2007