Look out Orcutt Academy—there’s another charter school in the area.
Similar to Orcutt Union School District’s Orcutt Academy, Camino Real Community Partnership Academy is Lompoc’s newest district-sponsored charter high school.
Both schools offer a science-heavy curriculum. The teaching process at the two charters, however, couldn’t be more different, according to Camino Real co-founder Andrea Lawrence.
“[Camino Real has] a really different program,” she said. “Orcutt Academy has a lot of cutting-edge programs and technology. It’s an all-day site, and we’re a half-day site.”
When Lawrence and colleague Kristen Lewis were writing their charter outline, they decided they wanted to open a school that focused on math and English.
“I don’t think anyone should graduate without being stellar in math and English,” Lawrence said.
“[Lewis] and I are both avid scientists. We want kids to have an overarching awe and appreciation of nature,” she explained. “And we have so many natural resources in this area that are just waiting to be studied.”
It was this mix of nature and education that inspired Lawrence and Lewis to pen their charter and eventually approach Lompoc Unified School District with the idea.
The school started enrolling students earlier this summer and is now in its second week of classes at the academy’s main campus, behind the district office in Lompoc, and at its satellite campus at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. There are also satellites at the Santa Maria and Nipomo public libraries.
Camino Real students participate in a “hybrid” learning program. In the morning, they attend their current grade-level classes at one of the campuses. In the afternoon, they work on recovering school credits through independent study.
Lawrence said that credit recovery is an important aspect of the program because it allows students to make up classes they most likely failed in the past so they can still graduate on time.
As Lawrence explained, traditional schools in California allot class credits necessary for graduation based on the number of minutes a student attends school. Typically, students are only allowed to take a maximum of two classes during summer school, making it nearly impossible for those who have failed more than two classes to make up credits while attending their current grade level courses.
“They end up having a mountain of credits that, by junior year, become impossible to eradicate because of the minute requirement,” Lawrence said.
The independent study time allows students to complete their coursework at their own pace and encourages personal responsibility, Lawrence said. Students will also get a lot of hands-on experience by going on field trips to Morro Rock, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and elsewhere.
The program for the current classes, however, is more structured and incorporates a community-learning environment. The overall theme is environmental science, and has a three-year cycle. Students study the ocean during their first year, air and space in their second year, and the earth during their third year.
Lawrence said the cycle is designed specifically to serve older students, such as 10th- and 11th-graders, who need to recover credits—though the school does have some ninth-graders.
This year—year of the ocean—the curriculum centers on Dava Sobel’s Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.
According to the novel, sailors in the 17th and 18th centuries struggled to navigate the vast ocean without getting lost or attacked by pirates. In 1714, England’s Parliament offered a sizable reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. While many established scientists looked to the stars for answers, one man, John Harrison, thought of building a clock that could keep precise time at sea.
Through studying Longitude, Lawrence said, students will be able to incorporate aspects of all subjects, including science, math, history, and English.
Dina Stone, a math teacher at Camino Real, explained that the curriculum encourages interdisciplinary collaboration.
“The English teachers tell the math teachers how to teach the language of the book, and the math teachers tell the English teachers how to teach the math of the book,” she said.
“And everyone is using their strengths in the afternoon to help students during independent study,” continued Stone, who also teaches psychology and sociology classes as electives. She studied the subjects in college.
“It’s very rewarding,” she said. “I hear stories from students who have never liked school, who have been outcasts. And now they’re telling me that they actually like school.”
The experience seems to be equally rewarding for the students as well.
In one class exercise, students were asked to draw a map, using pictures and words to describe their educational experience beginning in kindergarten and ending with Camino Real.
One student used the image of a ship to depict her increasing frustrations with school. At one point, she showed the ship sinking. However, her arrival at Camino Real—illustrated on the map as a lush, tropical island—provided her with a solid educational foundation.
“I like the teachers and the way they’re teaching more than other schools,” she said. “They explain things to you so politely, and if you don’t understand, they’ll explain it to you was many times as you need.”
INFOBOX: Chart your own course
For more information about Camino Real Community Partnership Academy, call 742-2770, or visit the Lompoc Unified School District Web site at www.lusd.org.
Contact Staff Writer Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 18-25, 2008.