• Who is the sponsor for TrekNorth High School?
• What is a charter school?
• How is a charter school established?

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Who is the sponsor for TrekNorth High School?
Our sponsor is Volunteers of America Minnesota, which is one of the oldest, largest and most comprehensive social service organizations in the state of Minnesota. They provide a wide variety of human service programs and opportunities for individual and community involvement. They are an independent, non-profit 501C3 organization incorporated in Minnesota and chartered by the national Volunteers of America, Inc.

The mission of Volunteers of America of Minnesota is to enrich the lives of program participants and to make a significant difference in the communities in which they serve. They seek to empower program participants with the skills and competencies necessary for age appropriate independence and self-reliance. They seek to strengthen communities and foster within them the capacity to support their members in achieving this independence and self-reliance. VOA Minnesota will be an invaluable resource for the service component of TrekNorth's mission. They have already offered much expertise in this area and have promised to be an active participant in this exciting new charter school for our area.

What is a charter school?
In 1991, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to authorize charter schools (then called Outcome-Based Schools). The law (M.S. 124D.10-11) permits teachers, parents and other community members to form and operate independent charter schools. To promote innovation, these schools are exempt from many statutes and rules governing school districts but held accountable for results. A charter school is a public school, part of the state's public education system.

The law requires that a charter school must meet one or more of the following purposes:

• Improve student learning;
• Increase learning opportunities for students;
• Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods;
• Require the measurement of learning outcomes and create different and innovative forms of measuring outcomes;
• Establish new forms of accountability for schools; or
• Create new professional opportunities for teachers, including the opportunity to be responsible for a learning program at the school site.

How is a charter school established?
Those wishing to start a charter school must obtain a sponsorship from a school board, intermediate district board, education district, eligible private college, community college, technical college, the University of Minnesota or an eligible charitable organization.

A sponsor must obtain approval from the Commissioner of the Department of Children, Families & Learning to authorize a charter school. If a school board elects not to sponsor a proposed charter school, the applicant may appeal this decision to the Commissioner.In addition to starting a new school, a school board may convert one or more of its schools to charter school status if 60 percent of a school's teachers sign a petition approving conversion.

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