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Proposed charter school seeks local input Its target: dropouts, home schoolers in Phoenix-Talent By Vicki Guarino of the Mail Tribune Organizers of a proposed specialized charter school for Phoenix-Talent School District students will hold a public forum on the project Tuesday. Armadillo Technical Institute planning session for families will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Phoenix Elementary School. School organizers are targeting dropouts and home schoolers -- high school-age students who are not now receiving public school services. Armadillo would emphasize individualized learning plans. One of the organizers is Mike Warner. He has been lead teacher at Lithia Springs School, which operates within the Ashland School District for students under supervision of the state juvenile court system. Warner is a former educational director of Crossroads, an alternative school for troubled youth in Medford. Phoenix-Talent School District administrators tentatively have endorsed the concept for Armadillo late last year. The proposal went on to receive a $10,000 state planning grant. At the time, Armadillo was one of four charter school proposals in the state to receive a grant. In discussions with district officials, Warner has said he envisions a program that uses the visual, publishing and research opportunities of computers and the Internet. Students would create Web sites for portfolios of their work. The curriculum also would include a "service learning" component in which students would identify a community need, then plan and carry out an appropriate project in response. The purpose of the community meeting is to obtain program suggestions from families that might want to enroll children in the school. The session will be the first step toward forging what organizers say would be an ongoing partnership with parents who want to be actively involved in their children's education. Armadillo could hold its first classes next fall. To open, the school would have to detail its program, its location and other matters to obtain a contract -- the charter -- with the Phoenix-Talent School Board. Charter schools may operate in conjunction with public schools under laws set out by the 1999 Legislature. The schools have greater latitude to design programs because they are free of some of the requirements of public schools. Specific program plans are worked out in the charter with the local school board. The programs are intended to bring greater innovation and flexibility to the public school system and to provide children with specialized programs and services that large schools and districts are unable to offer. A few Oregon school districts, including Ashland, have had charter schools operating for a few years. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA