Published: July 11th, 2007



The vote came after District administrators had been meeting with Blue Mountain personnel for all of June to try and reach an agreement about basic levels of proof of education and safety at Blue Mountain.

SLSD Charter School Liaison Sue Wickizer and Superintendent Krista Parent explained that most of the safety issues were probably reconcilable. But after three years, they said, the District and Blue Mountain hadn't been able to find a way to quantifiably show proof of learning was occurring at the school.

"As the charter's model has unfolded over the past three years, our concerns have not gone away. In fact, they've increased ," said Wickizer.

The decision left Blue Mountain Director Lesley Stine visibly upset.

"They said our educational model is too far from the position of the Board, but that's the whole point of charter schools," she said. "This school was founded by parents. We have the right to educate our children the way we want to."

Blue Mountain is a democratic school where decisions are made by student and staff votes and kids learn at their own pace.

Students at Blue Mountain enjoy a level of freedom uncommon in the public school system. In recent months, the school has come under fire for a pair of events "� a paintball tournament hosted at the school and a motorcycle accident that occurred off campus during school hours that have made district administrators and members of the Board nervous.

According to Stine, Blue Mountain intends to appeal the decision. The school will have 60 days from when they receive the letter from the District informing them of the revocation of the school's charter.

The appeal would be a public hearing.

Under Oregon state law, charter schools receive public funding from their authorizer, in this case South Lane School District. Charter schools are allowed to pursue alternative education methods with a certain level of freedom from District regulations , but the tradeoff is that the school must show proof of learning and other basic standards, as set out in the charter.

It's been the opinion of District administrators and some board members that Blue Mountain has failed to meet those standards to date.

The motion to terminate the charter was made by board member Joe Raade.

Tom McVeigh, Cheryl Mueller , Sherry Duerst-Higgins and Raade voted to revoke the charter .

"I'm greatly concerned over not being able to quantify the education," said McVeigh. "I believe everybody is acting in good faith here, but I don't think their model and our model can jive."

Leslie Rubinstein, Jim Goes and Carrie Gilmore were against the motion.

"We've invested a great deal in Blue Mountain. To terminate the charter would be to throw that away,"� said Goes. By a vote of 4-3 , the South Lane School District Board of Directors terminated the District's charter with Blue Mountain School on July 9.