Naperville Sun: Reform Bill would allow local charter school

Reform bill would allow local charter school

May 6, 2010 By KATHY CICHON kcichon@stmedianetwork.com

While there’s still much work to be done, plans for an “innovative” and “groundbreaking” partnership among several school districts and Aurora University to establish a charter/magnet hybrid school took a step closer to reality this past week.

“It’s very exciting,” Sherry Eagle, director of Aurora University’s Institute for Collaboration, said Wednesday. “The university and four school districts coming together with community partners to share in the responsibility of educating the community’s children in math and science.”

Partnering with Aurora University on the project are Indian Prairie District 204, West Aurora School District 129, East Aurora School District 131 and Oswego Community Unit School District 308.

To help make this possible, Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, and Rep. Linda Chapa La Via, D-Aurora, recently introduced a charter school reform bill in Springfield.

“This bill will enable the Institute for Collaboration of Aurora University and its partners to form a charter school for students in the top 3 percent of their class in math and science,” Cross said in a news release. “These third- through eighth-grade students will be taught problem-based learning. They will research real issues facing the city, local businesses or industries, and develop solutions.”

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