BUSD approves petition for Pathways Academy Charter School

The Bonsall Unified School District has agreed to sponsor Pathways Academy Charter School.

A 4-1 BUSD board vote May 12, with Lou Riddle opposed, approved the petition to authorize Pathways Academy Charter School. The approval also includes the PACS five-year budget and a memorandum between the Bonsall school district and PACS on the provision and funding of special education services.

"We're looking forward to a real successful sponsorship," said BUSD superintendent Justin Cunningham.

The Pathways model is a hybrid approach which allows students to take college requirement courses on-line with qualified teachers while focusing on the students' individual pursuits and passions. Students work at their own pace and have the option to accelerate their academic progress.

Pathways Academy Charter School will serve students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade (when the birthday cutoff for kindergarten entry was changed from Dec. 1 to Aug. 31, the transitional kindergarten program was created so that four-year-olds born between September and December could have a pre-kindergarten year).

The school estimates that it will have 400 students during its first year, which will be 2015-16, and will have an operational capacity of 3,000 students. If space is available, traveling students may attend any learning center or participate in a lottery for available space.

"We're familiar with their director. He used to be an assistant principal for us," Cunningham said. Ryan Woodward is the Pathways Academy Charter School administrator.

Rather than using textbook-driven curricula with technology serving a supplementary role, technology-based curricula and educational on-line tools are fully integrated into the Pathways learning model. Standards-based curricula will be enriched with electives and 21st century skills electronic learning classes, and career technical education pathways will be developed for students who are interested in a trade.

The courses have flexible hours and meeting days, which makes additional learning time possible without additional cost. Each student has a personal learning pathway with personalized learning time comprised of core instruction, weekly planning sessions, collaborative learning, and exploratory learning time.

Cunningham noted that Pathways can work with the non-charter Bonsall schools which have digital learning. "It will help the on-line program," he said.

The partnership may also help Bonsall High School's athletic program. The CIF San Diego Section has a "Multi-School Teams Status" policy which allows athletes from certain schools to play for a specified other team. In most cases this involves an independent study or other specialized school (other than a continuation school) affiliated with a comprehensive public school.

(Unified team status has also been granted for the split of a single campus into separate official schools, and ninth-graders in junior high schools which feed into the remaining high schools which start with tenth-graders can play on the high school team under the Multi-School Teams Status policy.)

The five-year charter covers the period from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2020. Pathways must submit a renewal petition to the school district between September 2019 and January 2020.