Our Towns - Placer County News
Comments (0) | | Print

New Loomis charter elementary to offer tough International Baccalaureate program

Published: Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008 - 12:00 am | Page 3B

The Loomis Union School District plans to implement the rigorous International Baccalaureate program at a new kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school that will open Aug. 20.

The new Loomis Basin Charter School will undergo a three-year process to become an accredited IB school, which would make it the region's first K-8 school to have the prestigious worldwide learning program, superintendent Paul Johnson said.

Plans are to house the charter in portable buildings next to the existing Franklin Elementary School.

It initially will serve 185 students in kindergarten to fourth grades.

A grade level will be added each year until Loomis Basin becomes a K-8 school.

"The goal is to take those IB strategies and infuse them into all of our schools," said Johnson, explaining that the charter will serve as a laboratory for innovation.

Loomis Basin principal Cindy Uptain and several district teachers and administrators attended an IB training conference last week in Austin, Texas.

Oakmont and Granite Bay high schools this year became the first in Placer County to offer the IB diploma program.

Mira Loma and Luther Burbank high schools in Sacramento also offer the diploma program, and Winston Churchill Middle School in Carmichael offers the middle years program.

Loomis Basin Charter School was conceived by a group of teachers and administrators who went to New York and New Jersey to visit what some consider the finest IB schools in the nation.

In 2006, Loomis school district trustees decided to explore charter schools as an option for parents seeking alternatives for their children.

Due to higher housing costs in the Placer foothills and an older population, the district has lost about 20 students a year for the past several years, according to district records.

In addition to sponsoring a charter school, the Loomis district has fought declining enrollment by merging with the Penryn school district and, last month, with the Ophir Elementary School District.

Loomis Basin Charter School is open to students who reside in Placer County or an adjacent county.

Admission is granted on a first-come, first-served basis.

The school is currently accepting applications for a waiting list, according to the school Web site.


Call The Bee's Lakiesha McGhee at (916) 773-7630.


About Comments

Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.

• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.


Sacramento Bee Job listing powered by Careerbuilder.com

Quick Job Search
Buy
Used Cars
Dealer and private-party ads
Make:

Model:

Price Range:
to
Search within:
miles of ZIP

Advanced Search | 1982 & Older