By CHRIS COLLINS

ccollins@bakercityherald.com

It’s the flexibility and ability to personalize instruction that drew Nathan Williams to the Baker Web Academy and Early College.

Williams, 36, is the director of the two programs and has served as principal for students in Eastern and Central Oregon since 2008.

Williams so appreciates online learning that he took advantage of the system to earn his own master’s degrees through Grand Canyon University on his way to a job as a school administrator. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education at Whitworth University at Spokane, Wash., where he and his wife, Star, both played college basketball.

The couple moved to Baker City this summer from Pendleton with their

two boys: Ridge, who is 6, and 4-year-old Asher. The boys were joined

2 1/2 weeks ago by a new baby sister, Daisy.

Baker Charter Schools is housed on the second floor of the former North Baker School building at 2725 Seventh St.

The program shares the building with the YMCA, which occupies the north

end of the downstairs, and the Eagle Cap School, billed as the Baker

School District’s “innovative” new high school program, is housed in

the south end of the downstairs.

There’s not one definition of the students and families who choose the

public charter school programs over the traditional classroom structure

offered at the Baker School District’s elementary, middle school and

high school buildings, Williams said.

“Each family is different,” he said. “People come to our school seeking an option.”

He describes the program as a “hybrid model” for all grade levels

offering online instruction along with face-to-face contact with

teachers, bi-monthly home visits and field trips. The curriculum is

designed to allow students to work at their own pace, mastering each

level of instruction before moving on to the next.

Other Baker City staff members are administrative assistant Melanie

Trindle; science teacher Burke Smejkal; and Katrina Wise-Rudolph, who

teaches Spanish and English as a second language. She also is the

coordinator of the school’s ASPIRE program, which provides volunteer

mentors who help students plan for college.

Marty Campbell of Pendleton, who teaches English, also serves Eastern Oregon students.

Through the Baker Early College program, students in Grades 10-12 work

to earn credits toward an associate degree that will transfer to Oregon

universities and colleges while also earning their high school

diplomas. The charter school pays tuition and fees of up to $1,100 per

term and a $100 textbook stipend per term for Early College students.

Daniel Huld of Portland serves as principal for students in Western Oregon and is the school’s academic counselor.

In addition to the Baker City site, seven other teachers work from hubs in Central Oregon, Portland and Eugene.

“We’re providing options for kids around the state,” Williams said.

As the new school year begins, the Web Academy has 260 students

enrolled and 46 are enrolled in the Early College program. Twenty-five

of those students live in Central Oregon, Williams said.

He expects enrollment numbers, especially at the Web Academy, to increase as the school year continues.

The Web Academy’s agreement with the Baker School District, its

sponsoring district, sets a 300-student cap on enrollment this year,

and that number is negotiated annually, Williams said. While there’s no

cap for the Early College, Williams said a limit of 50 is a reasonable

number.

As the program’s sponsor, the Baker School District receives 5 percent

of the state school funding paid for students in the charter programs,

said Doug Dalton, the district’s chief financial officer. The other 95

percent flows through the Baker School District directly to the charter

programs.

The state school fund currently pays about $6,000 per student. Based on

enrollment of 300 students, the charter schools would bring in $1.8

million in state school support. Five percent of that total would

provide $90,000 in additional funding to the Baker School District.

“That’s a common funding mechanism across the state,” Dalton said.

As state school funding fluctuates and student numbers rise or fall, that amount will change, he added.

“It’s certainly been a positive educationally for kids and a positive financially for the district,” Dalton said.

Unlike the Eagle Cap high school program, Baker Web Academy and Early

College is a separate entity and as such has its own governing board.

Board members are Charlene Chase, chair; Deon Summers, secretary;

Regina Cashen; Juanita Grammon; and Juanita Bergacker.

The board meets at 5 p.m. the second Tuesday of every month at the North Baker building.

One negative note has been the failure of the charter school programs

to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the federal school reform

law. Because they are sponsored by the Baker School District and they

failed to meet AYP requirements in two areas, the entire school

district received the “not met” designation in the 2010-11 AYP report.

Final results were released Thursday by the state Department of

Education.

Williams noted that the Baker Early College failed to meet the

“participation” requirement of AYP because of an “oversight” that led

to one student not participating in the required testing. Because of

the few students involved, that dropped the participation rate to 85

percent. The AYP target is 95 percent.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Williams said of his school’s failure to meet AYP. “It’s something we’re really working on.”

The Baker Web Academy also failed to meet AYP in math, where students

were 5 percentage points below the 70 percent math target in the area

of math knowledge and skills.

As a result, Williams has hired additional staff to reduce each teacher’s caseload.

The school also failed to meet the four-year cohort graduation target.

Williams says he expects Huld’s addition to the charter school staff

will help fix that problem as well.

“We’re really focusing on math and meeting AYP,” he said. “We fully expect to meet (the requirements) next year.”

More information about the charter school is available by calling 541-524-2300 or by visiting www.bakercharters.org.