Spark Charter School has begun its first school year with high hopes after years of waiting for its very own first day of school.
The charter school now occupies several portables at Columbia Middle School in Sunnyvale and welcomed students to the school Aug. 18.
Spark employs seven teachers: two for kindergarten classes, one for grades 1-4 and one for a grade 5-6 combination class. No seventh- or eighth-graders have enrolled yet.
Spark will differ from other public schools in the district in that the curriculum was fashioned by the board to include an emphasis on collaboration and learning through doing. Superintendent and principal of the school, Danni Tsai, said that the hiring process was selective and sought out teachers who shared a common vision with the school.
“We were looking for teachers who had a different mental model of what the school experience, the learning experience should be for children,” Tsai said. “So that was the key criterion; that was the most important thing we were looking for, and we feel very confident that we have a set of teachers who embody that.”
Tsai said the board had a vision for the charter school from the get-go.
“They really felt that there was a better, more effective way to teach kids; that’s what motivated them to build the charter,” she said. “Schools talk about it, but they’re not really able to execute that. Sometimes the only way to get after what you really want is to start from scratch, and that’s what a charter does.”
So far, 48 students have transferred to the charter school from the Sunnyvale School District, not including kindergartners who would have started school this year. Six students have returned to the district after initially enrolling in Spark, but their reasons for doing so are unknown.
Parents and board members worked for years before getting approval from the Santa Clara Board of Education after the charter school application was denied by Sunnyvale School District. Parents felt that there were other ways that their children could effectively learn.
“That’s one of the big things with [Spark], the way of teaching, that way that makes it meaningful, and while you’re learning you’re having fun and the kids really love the learning,” said parent Alexandra Zdravkovic, who is also the Spark board president. “I think lots of children love going to school. In this case, we really are going to make sure that they love learning, too.”
Zdravkovic also cited “experiential learning” as part of the unique curriculum. Students will learn skills while working in teams and in small groups.
“The way that it’s going to be different is that for one thing the social emotional learning is going to be embedded in the children’s day,” said Zdravkovic. “Those skills, those team building skills and how the kids interact with each other are going to be worked on a daily basis.”
Common Core standards and the school’s own crafted curriculum will be used at the school.
“There’s nothing wrong with the standards; there’s nothing wrong with Common Core,” Tsai said. “It’s all about how you teach. It’s all about how you get kids to learn and how you ask kids to show what they’ve learned.”
The goal of the charter is to instill a curiosity and love of learning in the children.
“Different kids need different ways, and when they have that opportunity to show you what they can do through their way–the exact same knowledge–it’s so much more powerful,” said Tsai. “And now a kid says, ‘Oh, school’s fun, school’s great because they see what I can do.'”
Spark is paying Sunnyvale School District $65,700 for the 2015-16 school year to lease space at Columbia Middle School. Parents and an education grant from the Public Charter Schools Grant Program are helping pay for textbooks, technology and supplies.
