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Northwoods Community Secondary School (NCSS) may be one of the best charter schools in the state, but with the district’s budget strained, the school may have to move out of its building next year.

NCSS has been nominated along with 15 other schools from around the state for the Wisconsin Charter School Association’s (WCSA) Charter School of the Year award. On Friday the top three candidates will be recognized at the organization’s inaugural awards banquet in Milwaukee. Tuesday, Superintendent Roger Erdahl confirmed that the district was considering moving NCSS from its current location to save money.

“It’s possible the location could change but it’s way too early in the process to say. We have many different ideas we are trying to work through with the board,” Erdahl said.

Erdahl said the administration would continue to support NCSS and its mission and dismissed the idea that the district’s charter schools would be considered superfluous to requirements in the future.

NCSS opened in 2004 and is in its last year of its first five-year charter, which means the school is no longer eligible for charter school grant money. Erdahl said the loss of grant money would not increase the district’s allocation to the school.

“Our obligations don’t increase. The biggest expenses for us are FTE’s and building space and they have always been in the budget,” said Erdahl. “If those schools closed the students would still have to be taught.”

NCSS lead teacher Darlene Machtan said the school’s identity as a separate school is important.

“The building is important. The ideal scenario for me if we were going to shut this building would be to consolidate us with NCES in the old central school building,” Machtan said. “But we understand everyone is facing cuts.”

While NCSS location may be in doubt, its success as a school has been acknowledged over and over again, making it a unique instructional asset for the district.

Charter schools are public schools that are allowed to waive state regulations in order to deliver their programming to their students. NCSS is one of 223 charter schools that serve about 35,000 students across the state. The School District of Rhinelander operates three charter schools.

The Wisconsin Charter Schools Association received 50 nominations in the categories of outstanding charter school, person, and innovator of the year.

The nomination for NCSS read, “Northwoods Community Secondary School has been leading the way for EdVisions charter schools in WI and MN through sharing best practices, involvement at Summer Institutes, and offering support to Milwaukee charter schools. NCSS charter program addresses the needs of kids in their community today.

Staff build critical relationships with students and families through their advisory time and offer project-based approaches to learning relevant curriculum. NCSS is community minded and models how to partner with resources near and far to gain a global perspective for learning. Using technologies, innovative curriculum, and attitudes that challenge their own mental models, the staff and students exemplify their mission ‘to provide challenging opportunities to each child to succeed in a changing world.’”

Recently, NCSS was named a “Visionary Lab School” by EdVisions, an educational group funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As a Visionary school, NCSS is considered a national role model for “best practices,” and is frequently visited by those interested in developing or sustaining project-based schools.

Machtan said the school owes its success to a combination of good timing, hard work, and a crucial strategic partnership.

“Our timing was really good. We came in at the right time. We were new when charters were burgeoning and the public’s attitude was positive. There was a lot of encouragement for innovation,” Machtan said.

Machtan remembers when things at NCSS were far from perfect. In the school’s first year, the site-based leadership team of teachers had not learned how to implement their project-based learning curriculum and the environment became chaotic.

Machtan said she and her peers learned how to combine structure and creativity in ways that encouraged their student’s to direct their own learning.

“Students can self-direct, but they need to learn how to do it. They need to know what questions to ask, where to go for their sources, and then they need to learn to manage their time,” Machtan said. “But they can definitely direct their own learning.”

Charter schools have flexibility to administer their curriculums, but their students still have to measure up with their peers in state testing.

Machtan said that while NCSS test scores have been good, they cannot accurately portray the school’s success.

“Our test scores have been good. We don’t have anything to hang our heads about,” Machtan said. “But there are so many other factors. We have a really strong parent buy-in and the board has been supportive. I think the in-roads we’ve made in the community have been successful. We’re trying to make everything as much of a real-world experience as possible for the students.”

Machtan said NCSS’s approach will not solve the problems of contemporary education, but it can provide education to a set of students who often fall through the cracks.

“We aren’t delusional. We haven’t built a better mouse-trap,” said Machtan. “We’ve build a trap to catch a different kind of mouse.”

She added that with the district’s budget cuts looming, she hopes the board will see NCSS as a necessity item.

“We know these cuts are being made throughout the district and we know people have said, ‘What about the charter school?’” Machtan said. “Is it a luxury? In this room most of the kids weren’t successful in the traditional environment. The question is ultimately, can we afford not to have a school like this?”

Charlie Ieye, an 11th grader at NCSS, is one student who had a hard time succeeding in the conventional school system.

“The whole reason I switched is because I was fighting and I got my tooth knocked out and it was the last straw for my mom,” Ieye said. “I had a bad attitude about life. After I switched it took a while to get out of that attitude. But you don’t have to do that here.”

Ieye said he fought almost every day during his time at James Williams Middle School because his older brother had done the same thing. What’s the difference at NCSS?

“I’m gonna graduate. That’s the difference,” said Ieye. “If I would have gone to the junior high and then the high school I wouldn’t have made it.”

Ieye said after graduation he wants to attend the Blackwell Job Corps and learn welding. He attributes NCSS’s project-based learning curriculum with giving him a sense of control over his destiny.

“To get your hours, you have to do it yourself,” Ieye said. “You’re gonna flunk out if you don’t take control.”

Ieye said he can tell immediately whether a new NCSS student will fit in.

“You have to want to graduate and want to move on to do something here,” he said.

Ieye intends to join his older brother and sister in gaining his high school diploma. The three of them are starting a new family tradition, he said.

Kari Sosnowski is another NCSS 11th grader who has thrived in the project-based curriculum. She said NCSS has helped her become better organized.

“It’s really helped in keeping me organized. I have to keep track of my time here and keep my workspace clean,” Sosnowski said.

Sosnowski attributes her school experience with making her a better employee. She works part-time at the Furniture and Appliance Mart.

“This school gave me more appreciation for what it’s like to work with people. I seem outgoing but I can be pretty shy,” Sosnowski said. “I’m sure most of the kids here who used to be shy would say the same thing.”

Sosnowski also said that NCSS has allowed her the chance to go to school in a community, something she said she would miss if the school changed locations.

“We mingle with everyone who lives around us. I’ve known them for years,” Sosnowski said. “If we were to move we’d lose all those people and this building is so homey. It wouldn’t be the same.”

Erdahl said the administration and the board are looking at a range of options as they consider how to balance the district’s budget and reducing the number of buildings the district operates is only one possibility.

He said NCSS site management team and small support staff make it an efficient school for the district to run.

“In some ways, they’re showing us a new way to run schools,” Erdahl said.

For Machtan, Friday evening will be a chance to share the joy of success with her fellow teachers.

“We have had an unbelievably dedicated staff committed to this idea from the start,” Machtan said.

Will NCSS be named the best charter school in the state?

“They don’t tip you off at all,” said Machtan. “We don’t even know who else was nominated.”

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