RAPID CITY - After successful
years at Red Cloud Indian School, Keith White struggled when he
transferred to Rapid City Central High School for his senior year
and eventually dropped out.
Red Cloud teachers set
expectations and emphasized the importance of him doing his work,
he said.
But, that didn't happen last year
at Central, so he left. Now, he's taking classes at the Career
Learning Center and getting good grades.
At Central, White also missed the
Lakota and cultural classes offered at Red Cloud. Many of his
friends try to use the Lakota words they know, but they don't know
a lot of their language or history, he said.
White spoke at a meeting of about
30 people meeting Thursday night at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel
to learn more about a local effort to get a charter school in Rapid
City.
The Charter School Advisory Group
began meeting several months ago, according to their spokesman,
Robert Cook, a former Central High School teacher.
Cook is a member of the state's
Indian Education Advisory Council and serves on National Indian
Education Association's board of directors.
"A lot of people sympathize with
our goals," Cook said.
A charter school would be an
opportunity to recruit some of the best teachers in the country
while addressing the different learning styles of Native American
children, he said.
Jody Severson of Rapid City
attempted to start a charter school 10 years ago. Charter schools
are unpopular because they are considered a threat to the funding
under a school district's control, he said.
Art Zimiga, the former director of
the Rapid City School District's office of Indian Education, was at
the meeting to voice his support for the charter-school
movement.
"Our goal is to serve all students
in need of an alternative education to feel successful," Zimiga
said.
Successfully passing state
legislation that would authorize the creation of a charter school
will take broad-based support, he said.
"We need to appeal to not just
Indian people," Sharon No Heart of Standing Rock Indian Reservation
said. There are so many people who want a different kind education
for their children, she said. "They are more progressive."
The opportunity to form charter
schools should appeal to a lot of other groups throughout the state
concerned about losing their cultural or religious identities,
Zimiga said.
Rep. Jim Bradford, D-Pine Ridge,
sat in on the meeting to learn more about the group's goals.
Bradford, who is a member of the
House Education Committee, warned the charter school supporters
that they would need the support of people and legislators
statewide to successfully pass a bill authorizing charter
schools.
"There are children in Rapid City
who are non-Indian who will want this, too," he said. "You must
reach those children."
Sen. Tom Katus, D-Rapid City, is
working on draft legislation that he plans to introduce during the
2008 legislative session.
That legislation will have to be
good for everyone to succeed, Bradford said.
The Charter School Advisory Group
plans to hold more meetings in the coming months. The next meeting
will be scheduled during the Black Hills Pow Wow, which is set for
Oct. 5-7 in Rapid City, to give more Native Americans an
opportunity to learn more about the effort.
Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or
andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com
