The new Discovery Charter School is expected to be located in the former Canonie building, located off Tremont Road in Porter.

Laurie Metz, a founding member of the charter school, confirmed today that the Charter School Development Corporation has a signed purchase agreement for the Canonie building, but that the purchase still needs to go through procedural approvals before it is final. The Charter School Development Corporation is a national not-for-profit organization that assists in the start-ups of new charter schools. As proposed, the organization would lease the building to Discovery Charter School.

Discovery Charter Schools received approval from Ball State University this summer to open a charter school in the Duneland community, though at the time the charter was granted a site had not yet been selected. Charter schools receive state funding for operating costs as traditional public schools do, but they are granted more flexibility than other public schools.

The Discovery Charter School is proposed to open in the fall of 2010 for grades one through six, with plans to add seventh and eighth grades in the following two years. The school is designed to have an outdoor learning, environmental education theme.

Metz said the Canonie building was selected in part because it is centrally located, with easy access to U.S. 20 and that it is located in a wooded area, adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Posted 11/4/2009